Bulgaria occupies the prestigious third spot among countries in Central and Eastern Europe in terms if number of initial public offerings year to date, which is a serious achievement taking into account the size of the local stock market, shows research conducted by investment intermediary Karoll.

There have been 12 IPOs in Bulgaria this year with proceeds amounting to 191 mln euros, which is nearly 97% up from last year, the research reveals.

Last year, by comparison, there have been just 6 IPOs, which is half the number of offerings filed year to date. Proceeds last year stood at just 97 mln euros.

Also, we have to take into account that we are still expecting some IPOs before the end of the year, and namely those of Enemona, Agria, and Zarneni Harni Bulgaria.

In spite of the good results, however, taking into the account the size of the local stock market, we have to note that in terms of IPO proceeds, compared with other countries in the region, we are nowhere near the top positions.

The only countries behind us in this chart are Hungary, Romania, The Baltic republics, and the Czech Republic, but we have to note, that this year there has been just one IPO in both Hungary and Czech Republic, three in the Baltic countries, and none in Romania.

However, on Monday, the Romanian gas distributor Transgaz launches the biggest IPO in Romanian history, offering 10% of its capital and expecting 65 mln euros in net proceeds.

There have been just two IPOs in Kazakhstan, so far this year. Both of tehm generated 670 mln euros, which is quite below the 1.84 bln euros in two IPOs last year.

The country with the biggest number of IPOs this year, quite logically, is Poland – 68, or 78% up from 2006.

Polish companies generated a total of 4.66 bln euros, which exceeds last year's figures by more than seven times.

In spite of the number of offerings, Poland is far behind Russia in terms of proceeds. Russian companies generated 11.29 bln euros in 15 IPOs this year.

Russia lead the chart last year as well with 11.45 bln euros in proceeds from a total of 10 IPOs.

This is largely attributed to the size of public offerings field on the Russian stock exchange, which attracts a lot of interest on the part of foreign investors.

As a whole, we may say that 2007 was a very good year for public offerings in the CEE region. The total number of IPOs has risen 70% compared with last year, and the amount of funds raised in them has grown 30.3% to 20.6 bln euros year-to-date, against 15.81 bln euros for the entire 2006.

You can see more details in the table below, kindly provided by Karoll.

CountryNumber of IPOs in 20062007 IPOs YTDIPO Proceeds in 2006 (mln EUR)2007 Proceeds (mln EUR)Poland38686384656Bulgaria61297191Czech Republic2121739Turkey482902185Croatia14345901Russia10151145011290Romania20440The Baltic Republics13100109Greece23725477Hungary112086Kazakhstan221884670Total691171580920604