[LINK] "Post-War Ukraine ‘Natural’ as Warsaw Bourse Looks East"

[rfmcdonald]

With Poland's dynamic but stagnant domestic economy, looking east to cultivate Ukraine as an economic partner as described by Bloomberg's Konrad Krasuski and Maciej Martewicz makes perfect sense.

The Warsaw Stock Exchange, home to a dozen traded Ukrainian companies, is betting on more listings from the former Soviet republic once the conflict there recedes and will offer to help develop Kiev’s nascent capital markets.

Growth on the Warsaw bourse, central Europe’s biggest stock market, stalled last year after the government halted sales of new companies to the public and overhauled its pension fund industry.

After merger talks with Vienna failed last year, Warsaw bourse is turning east to help more Ukraine enterprises find funding in a country with 10 mostly illiquid bourses. The Ukraine conflict with pro-Russian rebels has killed more than 4,800 people, pushed Poland’s eastern neighbor into its deepest recession since 2009 and left investors skittish about the country of 43 million people.

“Ukraine is a natural, strategic direction for us,” Chief Executive Officer Pawel Tamborski said in an interview at the Bloomberg News office in Warsaw yesterday. “We understand that now it’s not the priority for the Ukrainian government, but we are ready to help make the market less fragmented.”

Ukrainian companies have sold 2.9 billion zloty ($797 million) of shares in Poland since 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They were lured by the country’s pool of pension and mutual funds and the higher stock-market liquidity than on any of their home country’s 10 stock exchanges.