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Polish locker company InPost worth 9.5 billion euros after buoyant Amsterdam debut – Metro US

Polish locker company InPost worth 9.5 billion euros after buoyant Amsterdam debut

FILE PHOTO: An InPost locker is seen in Hackney, London
FILE PHOTO: An InPost locker is seen in Hackney, London

WARSAW (Reuters) – Shares in Polish parcel locker firm InPost jumped 19% on their Euronext debut on Wednesday, valuing the company which benefited from online shopping during the pandemic lockdowns at 9.5 billion euros ($11.55 billion).

The parcel business is widely used in Poland by sellers on online commerce platform Allegro, which debuted on the Warsaw bourse in October with one of the largest IPOs in Europe.

IPOs have picked up in Europe this year after a quiet 2020 when the spread of COVID-19 wreaked havoc on economies and led to stock market volatility.

Also on Wednesday, Polish mobile games developer Huuuge Inc. set the maximum price in its Warsaw initial public offering (IPO) at 50 zlotys per share, valuing the deal at around 1.5 billion zlotys ($401 million).

Elsewhere, Dutch tech firm WeTransfer is eyeing a stock market listing in Amsterdam in April or May, sources said earlier this week.

German e-commerce firm Auto1 and British online greetings card retailer Moonpig are already in the process of completing their planned listings, while the likes of Deliveroo, Darktrace, Trustly, Transferwise and Allfunds are all expected to launch their share offerings later this year, sources have said.

InPost announced its Amsterdam IPO plans in January.

The company’s books were covered just hours after the offer started and the offer closed on Tuesday afternoon with the price set at the top of the range at 16 euro per share.

InPost, which owns over 12,000 parcel lockers, also operates in Britain and plans to expand in Italy, France and Spain, in response to increased competition in Poland.

It said it picked Amsterdam for its listing to reflect its international expansion plans.

Amsterdam is emerging as a popular post-Brexit European listing venue.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)