WARSAW, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Poland's financial watchdog said it has approved Warsaw bourse's initial public offering (IPO) prospectus, giving the go-ahead to the offer valued at up to 1.3 billion zlotys ($454 million).
The Polish treasury wants to float a 64-percent stake in Europe's fastest growing stock exchange by the end of the year, with the debut expected at around November 9.
Sources told Reuters last week analysts at banks involved in the upcoming IPO valued the entire exchange at 1.5-2.0 billion zlotys ($524.3-$699 million).
The Warsaw bourse lists 387 companies on its main exchange with a combined market capitalisation of 794 billion zlotys. In the first half of this year, it reported revenue of 111.5 million zlotys and an operating profit of 53 million.
Despite an overall lull in initial public offers, Poland's market operator was the home of several large privatisation listings over the last year, including insurer PZU and utilities PGE and Tauron.
The treasury wants to sell the stake as part of a privatisation drive, aiming at securing 25 billion zlotys this year to help put a curb on the budget deficit.
Poland aborted several attempts to privatise the bourse, most recently abandoning plans to sell it to one of the world's leading operators after the final bidder, Deutsche Boerse, walked away from final talks a year ago.
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS will serve as the offer's global coordinators, with PKO BP brokerage working on the offer locally. (Reporting by Adrian Krajewski; Editing by Louise Heavens)