(Repeats story published late on Thursday)
(Wraps NWR and Cyfrowy Polsat)
By Jan Korselt and Chris Borowski
PRAGUE/WARSAW, April 10 (Reuters) - Two central European
companies set out plans for the region's largest initial public
offerings so far this year, indicating the freeze on larger
listings due to recent market woes may be thawing.
The central European exchanges, led by Warsaw, became one of
the favourite destinations for new European listings last year,
but many companies mothballed plans to go public earlier this
year as the region's indexes fell.
Analysts said on Thursday the plans by coal miner New World
Resources (NWR) and pay-TV operator Cyfrowy Polsat for listings
that could be worth more than $1 billion each show that the
recent stabilisation of markets could lead to a new IPO wave.
Warsaw's main WIG20 index <> fell to a 1 1/2 year-low
in January as markets retreated due to U.S. subprime crisis, but
has regained its footing and is up 12 percent since then.
Prague's PX <> has risen 11 percent since its mid-January
low.
NWR said it could float between a quarter and third of its
shares in the Czech Republic's biggest initial public offering
of a company, valued at $4.1 billion to $6.7 billion based on
sector earnings multiples.
The Dutch-registered mining group plans a primary listing in
London by the end of June and will also trade in Prague and
Warsaw. A substantial part of the offering will be in existing
stock.
"The conditions on the global markets are not perfect ...
but their business environment is good and they probably need
money for expansion," said Petr Novak of brokerage Atlantik FT.
"The shares of NWR could attract investors due to rising
prices of coal on global markets. Demand for coal is strong
thanks to the expansion of the steel and metallurgy industries,"
he added.
Cyfrowy Polsat, Poland's top satellite television group with
2.2 million subscribers, said it would seek to raise as much as
$500 million in a listing of up to a 28 percent stake in the
biggest listing by a Polish company so far this year.
The operator set a share price range of 10.80-13.80 zlotys
for a stake held by Polaris Finance, an investment vehicle of
Polish media tycoon Zygmunt Solorz-Zak.
At the higher end of the range, the offer would value the
offering at 1.04 billion zlotys ($480 million) and the entire
company at some $1.7 billion.
Cyfrowy Polsat had put off its IPO earlier this year because
of the difficult market conditions.
IPO BAROMETER
"Such a big IPO should be a good barometer for investor
appetites for larger offers," said Sergiusz Frackowiak, a fund
manager at Pekao Pioneer PTE, referring to Cyfrowy Polsat. "It's
too big not to take a look."
More broadly, Warsaw was one of the brighter spots in a
bleak first quarter in terms of market listings in Europe.
Including the alternative NewConnect market for smaller
listings, the Warsaw bourse had 18 IPOs in the first three
months of the year, or a quarter of all European listings.
But they amounted to just 43 million euros ($68.13 million)
raised, according to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, which
valued all European IPOs in the first quarter at 2 billion
euros.
Prague has not had a new listing this year.
The Cyfrowy Polsat IPO is managed by UBS, Unicredit CAIB and
DM Penetrator, which will also serve as bookrunners.
The company competes with Vivendi's <VIV.PA> Canal Plus and
'n', controlled by the main shareholder of Polish media group
TVN <TVNN.WA>. TVN's main rival is Solorz-Zak's broadcaster
Polsat.
NWR, co-owned by Czech financier Zdenek Bakala, picked
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Cazenove as joint
global co-ordinators and bookrunners. Citigroup is joint lead
manager.
NWR mines coking and steam coal in the eastern Czech
Republic and plans to develop two mines in Poland, across the
border from its Czech operations.
It plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund the expansion as
well as modernisation of its current mines.
NWR's biggest customers include steel mills such as Arcelor
Mittal Steel <MTP.PA> <ISPA.AS> and U.S. Steel <X.N>, energy
utilities such as CEZ <> and large industrial companies
in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Austria and
Hungary.
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(Editing by Erica Billingham)
