Opoczno IPOs on Warsaw exchange

Opoczno, the Polish ceramic tile producer, floated 99% of its share capital on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on June 24 at a price of PLN55 providing an exit for Credit Suisse First Boston and a route to exit for Enterprise Investors, which retains its 48.4% holding in the company. In total, 15,549,710 ordinary bearer shares of the A and B series were introduced to trading on the main market.

An Enterprise Investors and Credit Suisse First Boston consortium acquired shares in Opoczno in 2001 and 2004 when it was privatized. The investors then led a restructuring to make Opoczno a low cost, high quality producer of ceramic tiles, ultimately bringing its manufacturing costs 50% below those of its Spanish and Italian counterparts.

According to Enterprise Investors, in 2004 Opoczno increased sales in a flat market by 16% and between 2002 and 2004 its net profit increased almost eight times from PLN10m to PLN76m, reaching an 18% margin.

As part of Opoczno’s new growth strategy introduced in late 2004, the company bought a controlling stake in Dvarcioniu Keramika, the Lithuanian market leader with a 27% market share and strong export presence in Russia, Ukraine and Europe. This adds 10% to Opoczno’s production capacity. And early next year Opoczno plans to acquire a tile producer in Russia.

“Our partner CSFB decided to sell their shares at the IPO and we decided to keep our stake. With the recent developments, Opoczno has significant growth opportunities both in domestic and international markets. The company has a proven growth orientated management team, which will continue its work on performance to make the base for Enterprise Investors’ exit in not less than six months,” said Ryszard Wojtkowski, partner at Enterprise Investors.