Polish e-commerce software firm Shoper leaps on Warsaw debut (updated)
09/07/2021 11:18
(Adds detail, background)
GDANSK, July 9 (Reuters) - Shares in Polish e-commerce
software provider Shoper SHO1.WA jumped as much as 22% on
their stock market debut in Warsaw on Friday, riding the wave of
an online shopping boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Poland's e-commerce sector has seen rapid growth in recent
years, further fuelled by COVID-19 restrictions, with companies
such as sales platform Allegro ALEP.WA , parcel locker operator
InPost INPST.AS and online fashion retailer Answear.com
ANRP.WA going public since last autumn.
Shoper, which says it has around 45% of the market for
providing software as a service (SaaS) for e-commerce in Poland
by customer count, aims to more than double its customer base to
50,000 stores by 2026. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2O315B
"Shoper is an attractive, quickly growing company with
exposure to the e-commerce sector growth. (...) The offer was
fully booked at the maximum price, suggesting high demand from
the institutional side and that not all funds managed to buy as
many shares as they wanted," said Pekao brokerage analyst Lukasz
Kosiarski.
"Additionally, between completing the bookbuilding process
and the debut, the market began to increasingly discount the
risk of another pandemic-related lockdown, which would boost
e-commerce, including Shoper," he added.
Noble Securities analyst Maciej Kietliński noted the
company's strong first quarter performance, with revenues
increasing by 71% year-on-year to 15.8 million zlotys ($4.1
million) and its bottom line nearly doubling to 4.5 million
zlotys, an increase of 92% versus 2020.
"I hope you will be an outstanding company in the long term
on our market and that you will join the main Warsaw Stock
Exchange indexes shortly," said the bourse's chief operating
officer, Piotr Borowski, at Shoper's debut.
At 0945 GMT, Shoper's shares were up 14.5% at 53.80 zlotys
per share, compared with their offer price of 47 zlotys. They
earlier traded as high as 57.53 zlotys. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2OC13J
($1 = 3.8356 zlotys)
(Reporting by Karol Badohal
Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)
((karl.badohal@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 97;))