News
WSE introduces new fee model to support smaller issuers
The Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) is changing the rules for calculating fees charged to issuers of shares listed on the GPW Main Market, aligning them more closely with the scale of listed companies. The new model will be particularly beneficial to small and medium-sized issuers. More than 70% of companies will either pay a lower annual fee or see no increase. Issuers will also gain broader access to trading-based discounts, which may reduce their annual fee by up to 30%. The changes will be introduced in stages, starting on 1 January 2027.
The new fee model will replace a framework whose key parameters for companies listed on the regulated market have remained unchanged for more than 20 years. During that time, both the scale of the GPW Main Market and the size and structure of companies listed on it have evolved considerably. The new rules will better reflect these differences and link fees more closely to the size of each issuer.
“The changes align the fee schedule with the current scale and diversity of the market. They will reduce the cost burden on small and medium-sized companies, establish a more proportionate relationship between fees and the size of issuers, while preserving the strong competitiveness of the Warsaw Stock Exchange compared with other European exchanges. For more than 70% of issuers listed on the GPW Main Market, this will mean a reduction in the annual fee or no change compared with the fee that would have been charged under the existing rules. At the same time, adapting the trading-based discount mechanism to the needs of smaller issuers will enable them to benefit from reductions in their annual fees. This solution will benefit companies and contribute to greater market liquidity,” said Michał Kobza, Member of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The rules for granting trading-based discounts will change as of 1 January 2027. To qualify for the discount scheme, trading in a company’s shares will have to increase by at least 10% compared with the average trading volume over the preceding five years. Each full 10% increase in trading will translate into a 10% reduction in the annual fee, capped at 30%. This means that an issuer whose trading increases by at least 30% will be eligible for a 30% reduction in its annual fee.
An important part of the changes will be a new method for calculating the annual fee. The fee will continue to depend on the company’s market capitalisation, but it will be calculated progressively across market-capitalisation bands. The rate applicable to each successive band will apply only to the portion of market capitalisation exceeding the threshold of the preceding band. As a result, an increase in a company’s market value will no longer lead to an equally rapid increase in the fee.
Small and medium-sized issuers will benefit the most from the change. A company with a market capitalisation of PLN 100 million will pay an annual fee of PLN 16,000 instead of the current PLN 20,000, representing a 20% reduction. For a company with a market capitalisation of PLN 500 million, the fee will amount to PLN 56,000 compared with PLN 70,000 currently, also representing a 20% decrease. For a company with a market capitalisation of PLN 1 billion, the annual fee will amount to PLN 78,000 versus PLN 70,000 currently. These calculations do not take into account the potential trading-based discount, which may further reduce fees by up to 30%.
The new model will establish a stronger link between the annual fee and the scale of the issuer, which will have the greatest impact on companies with the highest market capitalisations. Under the current system, the maximum fee is reached at a market capitalisation of just PLN 350 million. Above that level, any further increase in a company’s value has no impact on the fee. Currently, more than 44% of issuers are subject to the maximum fee. The new fee calculation method will better reflect the different sizes of listed companies, resulting in higher fees for the largest issuers. Despite this change, fees for the largest companies will remain highly competitive compared with other regulated markets. According to GPW analyses, the largest Polish issuers will pay fees approximately three times lower, while the maximum fee will remain around three to four times lower than on comparable regulated markets. A company with a market capitalisation of PLN 25 billion will pay an annual fee of PLN 338,000 on GPW, compared with approximately PLN 1.2 million to PLN 1.6 million on other leading European exchanges.
The new method of calculating the annual fee will take effect on 1 January 2028. Companies will therefore have more than a year to prepare for the new rules and incorporate them into their financial plans and budgets.
“A closer alignment of fees with a company’s market capitalisation will make it possible to adjust them more flexibly to changing market conditions. If a company’s valuation declines, the fee payable will decrease, while an increase in market capitalisation will result in the fee rising gradually. This means a more flexible model under which GPW will, to a greater extent, share with issuers the impact of changing market conditions, while the cost borne by the issuer will more closely reflect its current market value,” added Michał Kobza, Member of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
GPW is currently the only stock exchange in Europe where the fee for the initial and subsequent admission of shares to trading is not linked to the size of the issuer or the scale of the offering. Therefore, as of 1 January 2027, fees related to the admission of shares to trading in IPOs and SPOs will also change. For both IPOs and SPOs, the fees will be linked to the value of the shares admitted to trading, in line with the approach adopted by other comparable regulated markets worldwide. The change to the initial admission fee will also make it possible to differentiate fee levels between the regulated market and NewConnect. At present, these fees are identical, despite the differences in the nature and characteristics of the two markets.
For an IPO on the GPW Main Market, the fee will amount to 0.01% of the offering value, subject to a minimum of PLN 6,000 and a maximum of PLN 400,000. For an SPO, the rate will be 0.04%, subject to a minimum fee of PLN 6,000 and a maximum of PLN 200,000. The introduction of maximum fee levels will ensure predictability of costs for issuers, including in the case of high-value transactions.
It should be emphasised that the GPW fee will continue to represent only a small proportion of the overall cost of raising capital. According to GPW analyses based on average figures for historical transactions completed in recent years, the fee will account for less than 1% of total IPO costs and 2% of the total costs of a secondary offering on average. Following the revision of the fee schedule, GPW will remain one of the more cost-competitive European stock exchanges in terms of fees associated with the admission of shares to trading.
The change to the fee model forms part of GPW’s continued development of initiatives addressed to issuers. The Warsaw Stock Exchange will strengthen initiatives designed to increase analyst coverage and the visibility of companies among investors, support trading liquidity, and facilitate issuers’ access to investors. GPW IPO Academy and educational tools for both listed companies and companies preparing to go public will also be further developed.
These initiatives are particularly important for small and medium-sized companies, for which analyst coverage, adequate share liquidity and access to investors may determine their ability to use the public market to raise capital. The revision of the fee schedule forms part of GPW’s broader efforts to make the public market more accessible to companies of different sizes and to strengthen the role of the capital market in financing their growth.