Canal+ Polska revives Warsaw listing ambitions amid IPO boom

By Pamela Barbaglia

LONDON (Reuters) - Polish pay-TV platform Canal+ Polska has revived plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in Warsaw, seeking to take advantage of a surge in European listings so far this year, a bookrunner on the deal said on Thursday.

The company, which dropped a planned flotation late last year due to market volatility, aims to sell up to 49% of its existing shares, the bookrunner said.

Just this week, European companies expected to be worth a combined $22.6 billion have announced IPO plans, while European listings raised a whopping $19.55 billion in the first quarter, the highest quarterly total since late 2015, according to Refinitiv data.

In early November, Canal+ Polska had set a maximum IPO price at 60 zloty per share, valuing its offering at 1.297 billion zloty ($341 million), only to call the deal off a week later.

U.S. television and broadband company Liberty Global and Polish broadcaster TVN Media, owned by U.S. group Discovery, plan to sell their shares in Canal+ Polska. Liberty Global has a 17% shareholding and TVN holds 32%.

French media group Vivendi, which owns 51% of Canal+ Polska, is not selling its shares as it wants to remain its controlling shareholder.

Madrid-based fund distribution platform Allfunds and Sweden's payments firm Trustly have both announced plans to list on European exchanges, while British cyber security firm is targeting a London listing just weeks after a poor debut for Deliveroo, whose shares dropped 30% on the first day of trading.

JPMorgan and Bank of America are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for Canal+ Polska, with Santander Bank Polska and Erste Group Bank AG also working as bookrunners.

($1 = 3.8075 zlotys)

(Reporting By Pamela Barbaglia. Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)

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