European IPOs outstrip the US

Some encouraging signs of life in European bourses, with the Financial Times Lex column reporting that European IPOs easily outstripped US offerings last year - and could do so again in 2006. Tighter US corporate governance and flourishing junior European exchanges are among the factors contributing to this success.

When it comes to animal spirits, European capitalism specialises in hibernation. Recent data on initial public offerings suggest this piece of conventional wisdom may now be wrong. PwC thinks Europe’s stock exchanges had 602 IPOs during 2005, raising €50bn. This is 85 per cent more than the prior year. It compares impressively with the US, where IPO proceeds remained flat at just €27bn.

Is this a sign of a new entrepreneurial vitality? Some qualifications are needed. First, European governments continue to float state-owned enterprises. Excluding these, only €40bn was raised. Second, the IPO boom in part reflects a dramatic shift of foreign listings away from New York to Europe. This is probably the result of a tighter US corporate governance regime. For example, since China Life was investigated by US authorities three months after its listing in December 2003, no big Chinese state-owned companies have listed in the US.

This trend could accelerate, given the Securities and Exchange Commission will soon make it easier for foreign companies to delist from the US. Overall, Europe held 129 foreign IPOs during 2005, compared with fewer than 20 in the US.

So at least part of the excitement is a product of the state and foreigners. Yet beneath this there is compelling evidence of indigenous activity. The continent’s junior exchanges, for example, London’s Alternative Investment Market and Luxembourg’s EuroMTF, allow young companies to list without having to shoulder the full regulatory burden of the main market. These are booming, with some €4.8bn raised in the second half alone, more than double last year’s levels. The US lacks this intermediate stage of listing, forcing more young companies to rely on private equity. Whether this is inferior is open to debate. But for public investors at least, Europe’s equity markets look wide awake.

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