Surprisingly, the big European IPOs are among the losers in this year that is about to end. Overall, with 2,388 offers raising $ 453.3 billion ($ 636.6 billion), 2021 was the busiest year for IPOs in 20 years. Global IPO volumes were up 64% and revenues were up 67% year-on-year, according to EY. “In the face of the uncertain environment that 2021 promised, the global IPO market had a bumper year, beating records for IPO volume and proceeds consistently in the fourth quarter,” said EY’s Paul Go.
IPO: record year …
The Nasdaq was the first exchange in terms of number of IPOs and proceeds, with 308 quotes which raised 97.5 billion dollars. And precisely the performance of the Nasdaq put the US IPO market on track to file its busiest year up with 416 new listings that raised $ 155.7 billion. “The wave of new public companies has been driven by high valuations, a sustained environment of low interest rates and a strong investor appetite for equities,” notes Rachel Gerring, EY Americas IPO leader. The United States remains the top destination for cross-border IPOs, with 106 companies choosing to go public there. But the IPO markets of Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa also ended the year with the largest number of deals since 2007, posting 724 IPOs that raised $ 109.4 billion. However, the record figures did not necessarily translate into strong performance.
… But in Europe many flops
Many stocks trade below their listing price. From THG, Auto1 Group SE, Allegro.ue, Deliveroo and InPost, there are numerous flops among the most important IPOs staged in Europe in the last 12 months. “Investors will have to put themselves in wait mode, considering the global economic recovery,” Susannah Streeter, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc, told Bloomberg. “Many IPO valuations have been driven by expectations of future growth and some companies have seen their shares slide due to concerns about soaring inflation and expectations of rate hikes.” The THG online shopping platform and Deliveroo food delivery platform have been dragged further down by governance and rating issues. Shares in InPost suffered after the Amsterdam-listed parcel operator experienced slower e-commerce volumes, while increased competition weighed on Polish e-commerce giant Allegro.