Allegro.eu record IPO
Last month, Allegro.eu, which is owned by the private equity firms Cinven, Permira, and Mid Europa Partners, announced its initial public offering. The leading Polish online marketplace sent shockwaves throughout the European economy as it raked in USD 11.2 billion on its first day as a publicly traded company. This made it the largest IPO in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange to date. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sheer size of this offering as it is also the second largest IPO in Europe in 2020. In their statement concerning the IPO, Greenberg Traurig hailed Allegro as being “the most recognized e-commerce brand in the country … one of the world’s top 10 e-commerce websites and among the top 100 websites in the world”. According to the latest report ‘PO Watch Europe’ prepared by the consulting company PwC, the Warsaw Stock Exchange ranked second in Europe in terms of IPO activity owing primarily to the debut of Allegro.eu.
The amount of companies backing this deal attests to the complexities associated with an IPO of such scale. On the financial side, Goldman Sachs International and Morgan Stanley were global coordinators and joint bookrunners leading a syndicate of eleven of some of the largest banks in the world. Whilst top law firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, and Greenberg Traurig handled the legal side of Allegro’s debut. Evidently, the legal and financial difficulties presented in such operations are immense. Not only does legal compliance have to be ensured at every stage of the process but many necessary structure changes have to be implemented in a company prior to its going public.
This listing is an ode to the steady post-Covid19 revival of the European IPO market as activities in this sector were significantly curbed in the first half of the year. Following Allegro’s success, more companies are likely to be attracted to both the Warsaw Stock Exchange as well as listing on any other European bourse. This is the case especially so in the current economic boom occurring worldwide. However, this may still prove to be short-lived as the effects on the global economy of the introduction of the Covid19 vaccine and Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential elections unravel.
