Serbia’s effort to revive its capital market is moving into a more demanding phase, with several companies preparing corporate bond issues before the end of 2026 and the first meaningful IPOs potentially following in 2027.
Belgrade Stock Exchange executive director Lazo Ostojić said several Serbian companies were already preparing bond offerings, while private businesses were working toward possible share listings next year.
He also said at least one state-controlled company could eventually enter the IPO pipeline, although no issuer or timetable has been confirmed.
The developments could mark an important shift for a financial system still dominated by bank lending.
Serbian companies have historically relied on bilateral loans and bank syndicates for expansion, while the Belgrade Stock Exchange has played only a limited role in raising new capital.
That has left Serbia with a relatively sophisticated banking sector but a shallow corporate securities market.
The government and international financial institutions have been trying to change that.
A €27.7 million World Bank-backed capital-market programme is supporting corporate bond issuance, regulatory development and improvements in market infrastructure, while amendments to Serbia’s capital-market legislation entered into force in 2026.
Several transactions have now provided early evidence that companies are willing to test the market.
Engineering and energy contractor Kodar Energomontaža raised around €15.4 million through a green bond issue in August.
The company had initially sought up to about €50 million, meaning roughly 31% of the maximum planned issue was subscribed.
That result illustrates both the opportunity and the challenge.
Serbian companies can attract non-bank financing, but investor demand is not yet deep enough to assume that every sizeable issue will be fully absorbed.
This will make the next group of issuers particularly important.
If several companies can raise meaningful amounts at competitive pricing, corporate bonds could start developing into a repeat financing channel rather than remaining a collection of individually supported transactions.
That would be particularly relevant for energy, infrastructure, real estate and industrial companies with large capital requirements and investment horizons extending beyond standard working-capital loans.
The potential return of IPOs would be a bigger structural change.
Serbia has lacked a sustained market for new equity listings for years.
A successful private-sector IPO would give domestic investment funds, institutions and households a new way to participate directly in Serbian corporate growth.
A listing of a larger state-controlled company could have an even greater impact by introducing a liquid benchmark security and drawing investors back to the exchange.
But the identity of the issuer would matter.
A small free float or weak corporate governance would do little to rebuild the market.
A sizeable, profitable company with transparent reporting and meaningful public ownership could have a much larger demonstration effect.
The investor side of the market is also beginning to change.
Serbia’s investment funds now manage around €2.4 billion, although nearly 80% remains concentrated in money-market products.
That means the country increasingly has professionally managed domestic savings, but relatively little of that capital is being directed toward corporate bonds and equities.
The mismatch is becoming clearer.
Potential issuers are emerging at the same time that local investment funds are accumulating assets, but the bridge between the two remains weak.
Even a modest shift would matter.
If only 10% of current investment-fund assets moved over time toward corporate securities, that would represent around €240 million of potential demand — comparable with the prospective corporate bond pipeline discussed by market officials.
That would not reduce the importance of banks.
Serbia’s banking system remains liquid and profitable, and bank lending will continue to dominate corporate financing.
The more realistic objective is diversification.
Companies with large investment programmes could combine loans, bonds and eventually equity rather than relying almost entirely on bank balance sheets.
That would also spread funding risk.
The harder question is liquidity.
Issuing securities is relatively straightforward compared with building a market in which investors can buy and sell them regularly.
If bonds are placed with a small number of institutions and rarely trade afterwards, the market remains shallow even if issuance volumes rise.
Equities face the same test.
Investors need credible disclosure, sufficient free float and confidence that they can exit positions without moving prices dramatically.
That makes the quality of the first wave of transactions more important than their number.
A poorly structured IPO or weakly subscribed bond could discourage investors for years.
A handful of successful deals could have the opposite effect.
Serbia has spent years building the regulatory and institutional framework for deeper capital markets.
It now has something more tangible: companies preparing to use them.
The next test will not be another reform strategy or conference announcement. It will be whether investors are willing to write the cheques.
