The Issuers Who Pay to Be ListedThin moat
GPW (GPW) — moat facet
An issuer's fee is annual and small; the turnover its shares generate is continuous and is the whole business — which is why a departing heavyweight costs far more than the listing count suggests.
There were 402 companies listed on the Main Market at the end of June 20261, and each of them pays to be there. The fees are not what makes them valuable.
An issuer's economic contribution to the exchange is the trading its shares create, and that is distributed with brutal unevenness. A handful of index heavyweights — the banks, the insurer, the refiner, the state-controlled utilities, the one genuinely large technology company — account for the great majority of turnover. A small industrial company on the growth market pays its fee and generates almost nothing. This is why the listing count, which the exchange's own Small, Stagnant Home Market threat covers in full, understates the problem when a large company leaves and overstates it when a small one does.
2025 was a better year than the count suggests: companies and their owners raised more than 20 billion złoty on the market, the exchange launched an IPO Academy to prepare candidates for listing, and it expanded a sponsored-research programme so that smaller listed companies get analytical coverage they cannot buy2. Management expects a clear revival of new issues in 2026, including the possibility of a substantial defence-sector float toward the end of the year, and European deregulation under the Listing Act should make the process cheaper.
The honest framing is that an exchange cannot manufacture issuers. It can lower the cost and the indignity of listing, and then wait for owners and private-equity holders to decide that a public market is a better exit than a trade sale.
Watch net new listings rather than turnover. Turnover follows the market; listings follow whether this exchange is where Polish companies believe capital lives.
After years in which departures outnumbered arrivals, 2025 saw more than 20 billion złoty raised on the market, and management expects a clear revival of new issues in 2026, possibly including a substantial defence-sector float. The IPO Academy and the sponsored-research programme lower the cost of listing. This is the first genuine improvement in the primary market in a decade, and it is one good year, not a trend.
Listing fees depend on the count and value of issuers; the count has fallen from 432 in 2020.
Source: GPW H1 2026 interim report ↗- ReportedThere were 402 companies listed on the Main Market at the end of June 2026, and each of them pays to be there.GPW Group interim report for H1 2026 - revenue by line, turnover, listings, TGE volumes, operating expenses, FTEs, ratios, dividend, associates (KDPW 33,33%) — H1 2026 · publ. September 2026 · source ↗
- Reported2025 was a better year than the count suggests: companies and their owners raised more than 20 billion złoty on the market, the exchange launched an IPO Academy to prepare candidates for listing, and it expanded a sponsored-research programme so that smaller listed companies get analytical coverage they cannot buy.Warsaw Stock Exchange, 'Reviewing 2025 and setting the agenda for 2026', WFE Focus interview — the WIG rose 47% and the dollar-based MSCI Poland 68%, making Poland one of the strongest equity markets globally; the number of brokerage accounts rose by 500 000 to 2,5 million; a zero-fee programme and new dividend, defence-sector and bitcoin ETFs contributed to ETF turnover growth of more than 100% year on year; the WSE IPO Academy was launched; more than half of Polish household financial assets are held in cash and bank deposits, the highest share among large EU economies against an EU average of 31% and 12% in Sweden; the Personal Investment Account (OKI), announced by finance minister Andrzej Domanski and modelled on Sweden's ISK, will allow individuals to invest up to 100 000 złoty tax-free and could attract up to 100 billion złoty within three years according to the ministry; 2026 is expected to bring a clear revival of IPOs, possibly including a significant defence-sector listing — FY2025 / 2026 outlook · publ. 2026 · source ↗