IPO Watch Europe – Q1 2008

IPO market slows dramatically and prospects for the next quarter look bleak

April 2008

Reflecting current adverse market conditions, European Initial Public Offering (IPO) activity in the first quarter of 2008 has seen a sharp drop compared to the same quarter in 2007, 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 January to March period there were 70 IPOs on European markets, just over half that of the 139 recorded in the same period of 2007.

The total offering value of IPOs in the first quarter of 2008 was €1,992m, hugely down from the €10,631m raised in the first quarter of 2007 and one of the worst quarterly figures recorded since the IPO Watch Europe survey began in 2002. Of the total offering value, 74% was raised by international companies with European companies only raising €526m.