Dear Sir or Madam,

The landscape of the exchange market world-wide and in Europe has been largely transformed in the last years, mainly due to two factors: technological progress and regulatory change which has liberalised the capital market. Faced with growing competition and technologies which develop ahead markets, exchanges have had to dramatically change their business profile in order to address the expectations of the shareholders and other stakeholders.

The initiatives designed and implemented by WSE in 2013 were aimed at such harmonisation of business with the new circumstances. This is defined in detail in the strategy of Warsaw Stock Exchange for 2014-2020, WSE.2020, adopted in December 2013. One of the main functions of the Exchange today is to build shareholder value; however, it should be stressed that the business activity of WSE is not in conflict with the infrastructure role of the exchange on the capital market. Quite the opposite: they complement each other.

Technological modernisation; initiatives aiming to improve the liquidity of trading; extension of the product offer: these are only a few examples taken from the new strategy designed to further reinforce and develop the strong position in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Last year the Exchange also took many steps to strengthen the confidence of investors and, more broadly, the general public in the capital market. We reformed the NewConnect market; introduced an effective solution to the penny stock issue; completed a range of educational projects and initiatives integrating market participants. These projects as well as many others focusing more strongly on our mission and by definition offering long-term benefits would not have been possible without the stable growth of the business of the WSE Group.

Diversification as demonstrated by the growing share of the commodity market in WSE’s revenues, protecting us against the volatility of the stock market, as well as further internationalisation including the acquisition of a stake in Aquis Exchange are the directions which WSE will follow in the coming years.

I do believe that the implementation of the strategy will ensure further dynamic growth of effective infrastructure attractive to market participants while building shareholder value of the Exchange.

 

Wiesław Rozłucki

Chairman of the Exchange Supervisory Board