Ukraine has one of the fastest growing economies in the world; to generate this growth companies need to finance capacity expansion. Ukraine is currently experiencing one of the fastest stock market growth rates in the world over 50 % in the first quarter of 2007.

In 2006 Ukrainian companies issued 16 IPOs and that number is expected to double in 2007, including financial services, banking, food production, retail trade and real estate development. Companies are willing to raise new investment capital by offering shares both to local and Western portfolios and private equity investors or by offering debt obligations in the form of corporate bonds.

Investors look for large, underdeveloped economies where there is a relative amount of political stability and predictability and where there is a general tendency toward good corporate governance standards. Ukraine meets these criteria with the exception of the most recent political events.

Today on the Ukrainian market most in demand are capital-raising services through IPO. The issuance of new share capital is one of the cheapest sources of long-term investment capital for Ukrainian companies.

Raising 20 million dollars to 70 million dollars through a local listing on PFTS is relatively easy, because the local market is becoming more and more liquid in secondary trading. Today's PFTS average daily trading volume for shares is 14 million dollars.

Ukrainian companies do their IPOs both on the Ukrainian stock market PFTS and on the international capital markets, like the LSE or WSE. 2006 was a successful year for 12 companies which did an IPO on the PFTS, for three companies on the LSE and one on the WSE.

August 2006 became a successful month for Astarta Holding which was the first Ukrainian company on the WSE. It gained 31.5 million dollars for a 20% share holding. Until the end of 2008 Ukrainian companies plan to make an IPO for 3,1 billion dollars. 23 Ukrainian companies announced their future IPO plans connected with the LSE, and an other 12 choosing other international stock markets. In 2007 the government plans to list 38% of Ukrtelecom in London and its value should be closer to 3 billion dollars.

The main problem for Ukrainian companies is the absence of the information about their activities. As a result, they have little or no trading volume or even decreasing in prices. Companies listed in the LSE had such an experience.

Undoubtedly it's better for Ukrainian companies to raise their capital on the Ukrainian Stock Market, where local traders and brokers know who they are and have the ability to trade their shares.