IPO Watch Europe – Q4 2007

January 2008

The Initial Public Offerings (IPO) markets remained strong in 2007, despite market volatility in the fourth quarter of 2007 which saw a 21% fall in activity compared to the same period of 2006, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The firm’s latest quarterly IPO Watch Europe survey, which tracks the volume and value of IPOs on Europe’s main stock exchanges, showed that in the October to December period there were 227 IPOs on European markets compared to 288 in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The total offering value of IPOs was €29,069m in the fourth quarter of 2007, a decrease of 17% compared to €34,954m recorded in the same quarter of 2006, which was the highest quarterly figure since the IPO Watch Europe Survey began in 2001. In terms of both volume and offering value, London was the largest market this quarter raising €9,349m from 80 IPOs. However, activity in London has fallen compared to the fourth quarter of 2006 when €15,303m was raised from 134.