WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish retail chain Dino will debut next year in possibly the biggest share offer in 2017 on the Warsaw bourse, Dino's CEO told Reuters.
Private equity fund Enterprise Investors plans to sell a stake of up to 49 percent in the business.
This could boost the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WA:GPW), which has lost investors and attracted fewer new entrants as the government has pursued policies that have been criticized by the European Commission and some credit rating agencies.
Unlike the big state-run blue chips, which heavily weigh on the bourse's major index, Dino's business has thrived.
"We plan to debut on the Warsaw bourse in the first half of 2017," said Szymon Piduch, who has been Dino's chief executive officer for 14 years.
In an interview on Friday, Piduch told Reuters: "This is a good moment (for an IPO). The scale of the company's development is the argument."
The offer will include only existing shares owned by Enterprise Investors, which bought its stake in Dino in 2010 for 200 million zlotys. The company's founder and owner of the remaining 51 percent, Tomasz Biernacki, will keep his stake.
"Our IPO will most likely be the biggest in 2017 and also in the past few years. We want to address it to individual investors in Poland and institutional ones both in Poland an abroad," Piduch said.
He said Dino is taking advantage of the boost to Polish retail spending from the conservative government's child benefit payments.
Piduch played down any impact on the chain's operations from a planned tax on retailers and a possible ban on Sunday trade.
Dino has now 608 stores compared to 100 in 2010, mostly in western Poland. Its revenues rose by 23 percent in 2015 to 2.6 billion zlotys ($620 million) while EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) increased by 42 percent to 201 million zlotys.
Eighteen companies have debuted on the Warsaw bourse since the start of this year, the biggest for 245 million zlotys.
Last year the bourse attracted 30 debuts, including German wheel supplier Uniwheels whose IPO raised 504 million zlotys.
Concerns over government plans to cut dividends and claim more taxes from state-run firms have added to investor concerns raised by a 2013 pension system overhaul.
The exchange, which is state-run, is particularly vulnerable to government decisions because the state is a shareholder in more than half the 20 blue chips (WIG20) listed in Warsaw, mostly utilities and banks.
($1 = 4.1961 zlotys)