Largest Polish e-commerce platform gets ready for IPO
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polski
Allegro Group plans to conduct a public offering on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the final quarter of 2020. It will be one of the largest debuts in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and perhaps a record-breaking one. The offering will include the issue of new shares with expected gross proceeds of about PLN 1bn and the sale of shares by current shareholders, including private equity funds and some directors and officers.
IPO for repayment of debt
As Allegro informs, the amount – together with the new credit line credits – will allow it to pay off part of the debt. Moreover, the group has entered into a promise with lenders for a new five-year secured unsubordinated credit worth PLN 5.5bn and PLN 500m multi-currency revolving credit to refinance all of Allegro’s debt resulting from the existing credit.
Mainly institutional investors
Only 5% of the offer is to be addressed to individual investors. All employees employed by Allegro on the day of the IPO and who do not hold shares covered by historical investment arrangements will receive a one-time bonus in the form of shares worth 10,000 PLN per employee, to which they will acquire rights after 360 days from the date of the IPO.
The pandemic has raised the results
The Allegro platform has a database of 12.3 million active users who have access to the offer of about 117,000 companies, concluding an average of 32 million transactions per month (in the year ended 30 June 2020, including the COVID-19 tightening period). At that time, the gross value of products sold on the Allegro platform amounted to PLN 28.4bn. Sales increases in July and August were still high, amounting to 48% and 51% respectively.
According to the latest PMR report, “Online retail market in Poland 2020. Market analysis and development forecasts for 2020-2025“, the Polish e-commerce market in 2019 was worth over PLN 61bn and accounted for almost 11% of retail trade. In 2020, the highest growths in years can be expected. Such a rapid growth will be possible thanks to the COVID-19 epidemic. Internet trade has gained strongly thanks to the pandemic and restrictions introduced to limit its development. Stores and trading platforms have recorded significant sales growth, and many landline store chains have decided to launch their own e-shops.
