The European IPO market is enjoying buoyant conditions driven by rising market confidence and demand for new shares as investors seem relieved that the Eurozone crisis has dwindled.
“Both in terms of number of transactions and money raised European IPO activity for Q2 2014 ($32.7billion from 106 IPOs) strongly outperformed Q2 2013 ($7billion from 38 IPOs),” according to PwC’s latest report.
Eleven of the quarter’s twenty largest IPOs were executed in Europe. Although the IPO activity was spread across the continent, London Stock Exchange remained the leading European exchange with three out of the top ten European IPOs in both Q2 2014 and H1 2014 listing in London.
Overall, the UK IPO market saw 72 IPOs in H1 2014, raising a combined total of $22.7 billion. The Spanish IPO market continued its Q1 2014 uptick with flotation’s such as the real estate company Merlin Properties raising $1.7billion in June. Other significant European IPOs include the European stock exchange operator Euronext raising $1.1billion on Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris in June.
Similar to the situation in the US, PE-backed IPOs made a robust contribution to European IPO activity in the first half of 2014, accounting for 35% of the total number of deals and 53% of the total amount of money raised.