Storm clouds have gathered over Warsaw’s stock exchange, following news that the government could introduce a second round of pension reform, which could lead to the terminal of the pension funds. “All the attempts to limit the inflow of capital to the pension sector should be considered as a great threat for the Warsaw’s stock market,” claims Krzysztof Waleńczak, managing director of Societe Generale Investment Banking.
The first pension reform, carried out back in 1999, resulted raising a strong, local capital market, and to 14 active funds on the free market. “The more local capital we collect, the more foreign capital it attracts,” says Waleńczak. Nearly 40 percent of the trades on WSE comes from foreign investors, who consider the liquidity of the Polish bourse to be crucial. “We have chosen Warsaw, instead of Vienna, due to the grand investors base,” says Borno Janekovic, managing director of Franklin Templeton Investments. “We also like big IPOs.”
