European IPOs see worst ever quarter

Europe’s initial public offering (IPO) market has suffered its worst ever quarter with 18 listings in the three months up to March 31 raising just EUR 9 mln, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest IPO Watch Europe survey.
The survey shows that volumes and values were massively down on the first quarter of 2008 which saw 72 IPOs raise EUR 1,942 mln and even on the disappointing last quarter of 2008 when 64 IPOs still raised 1,238 mln.
The total money raised in Europe was less than 1% of the figure recorded in the first quarter of 2008. Only 11 of the 18 IPOs that made it to market raised any money. The average amount raised was less than EUR 1 mln compared with 34 mln in the same period a year ago.
The Warsaw Stock Exchange was the largest market in terms of value and volume with six IPOs raising EUR 6 mln. It also hosted three of the five largest IPOs of the quarter. London and Luxembourg were the only other exchanges to host IPOs that raised any money – EUR 2 mln and 1 mln, respectively.
In the US, just two IPOs were hosted but did raise EUR 564 mln, compared with the 25 that raised EUR 14,698 mln in quarter one of 2008, a 92% plunge in volume and 96% in value, although that quarter included the biggest IPO in US history, that of Visa. One of the US IPOs was a Chinese manufacturer of electronic goods that raised EUR 1 mln.
The Russian market saw three IPOs, none of which raised any money and all were from the utilities sector. This compared with the six that came to market in the same period of 2008 but again raised no money.