CMS Poland advises Wittchen on its entry to the stock exchange

CMS has advised on the initial public offering of Wittchen S.A. (a leading Polish retailer of luxury accessories and leather goods selling luxury footwear, leather clothing and travel accessories) and the introduction of its shares to trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The company operates on the Polish market for luxury accessories and leather goods. The value of the IPO totalled more than PLN 55 million, of which PLN 27.2 million was obtained through the issue of new shares for the realisation of strategic objectives. This is the second IPO that CMS has worked on recently – the previous one was InPost.

Wittchen’s shares are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on 9 November. The final IPO price for the company's securities was set at PLN 17. The offer, addressed to individual and institutional investors, includes 3.25 million shares, of which 1.6 million come from a new issue, and 1.65 million from existing shareholders. 250,000 newly issued securities are provided for individual investors. According to Wittchen, the funds raised under the IPO will be used to further develop the sales network, including internet sales to new foreign markets, the development of a logistics centre, and as working capital.

The Wittchen IPO is another example of a significant transaction on the capital markets, which CMS’s recently expanded Capital Markets Team has supported (the InPost IPO took place on 13 October).

"Recent months have shown that, despite a number of market challenges, good companies can still successfully view the stock market as a way to raise capital for planned investments. Although we have recently witnessed several suspended or cancelled offers, in the case of today's debut, we can speak of significant interest from investors. There is much strength in a well-known brand with 25 years of history on the Polish market, which translates into investor confidence,” says Rafał Woźniak, of Counsel in the CMS Capital Markets Team.

According to Michał Pawłowski, managing partner of the CMS Capital Markets Team, “Investors’ interest was already evident during the book-building process and allowed the issue price to be established at the expected level. The Wittchen IPO is another example of a successful transaction on which we have recently advised. It’s a well-managed company with high growth potential, which is appreciated by investors. We believe that Wittchen’s success will lead to the success of other stock exchange projects that we support as legal advisor, which we’ll be seeing in the coming months.”

The IPO was prepared by a CMS team composed of: Michał Pawłowski, partner and head of the team, Rafał Woźniak, Of Counsel, and other lawyers specialising in capital markets law, Magdalena Trzepizur, Rafał Kluziak and Dawid Koruba.