(BFM Bourse) – After a difficult year in 2023, the IPO market is regaining strength in the first months of 2024. The European listing is expected to be renewed in 2024 as several companies have expressed their intention to launch on the financial markets this year, judging the firing window favorable.
A scent of recovery permeates the European IPO market. Unlike 2023, the terrain appears more favorable for this type of operation with indices at their highest and hopes of future interest rate cuts this year.
Companies on the Old Continent have raised $3.2 billion since January, more than double than last year, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group cited by the Financial Times.
The market is thus achieving its best annual start since 2021, an exercise which entered the stock market annals with more than 300 companies which attempted the adventure of a first listing on the Stock Exchange on European soil.
Among the operations that animated the European IPO market at the start of the year, we can cite the partial listing of Athens International Airport by the Hellenic State at the beginning of February. And demand was more than there for the partial privatization of the country’s most important airport, with an operation oversubscribed 12 times.
The German Renk also successfully crossed the forks of the Stock Exchange, this time at the end of February. The German manufacturer of gearboxes for tanks has successfully returned to the financial markets, the group having already been listed from 1923 to 2020 in Frankfurt. The title moves around 27 euros, or 80% above the introductory price set at 15 euros. Renk’s tenacity therefore paid off even though the group had suspended its project five months previously, due to difficult market conditions.
The recovery of the European IPO market showed “encouraging signs at the start of the year with a handful of successful listings,” Andrew Briscoe, Bank of America’s head of Equity Capital Market for EMEA, told Bloomberg ( Europe Middle East and Africa).
Renk’s first successful steps should give confidence to other files expected to reawaken the Old Continent’s rating. Among them, Douglas, who is on the starting blocks for an IPO in Frankfurt by the end of the month. The perfume distributor, owned by the CVC investment fund, plans to raise just over 1 billion euros, and is aiming for a valuation of 6 billion euros.
A dynamic German market
To be more precise, it is a return to the stock market of the Douglas company. The company was delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2013, after being bought by the Advent investment fund and the Kreke family. Then in 2015, the specialized distributor fell into the hands of the CVC Capital Partners fund which is also preparing to go public in 2024, in Amsterdam
Douglas will therefore be on track to be the second IPO of the year in Frankfurt, after that of the Renk group. In addition to Douglas, at least four major IPOs are expected on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, several sources also told Reuters. Including that of Flix, the parent company of Flixbus, which plans to launch an IPO in June in Germany with a target valuation of around 4 billion euros, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the Financial Times.
“This would then be the first IPO financed by venture capital in Europe this year,” continues the financial media.
The Swiss neighbor Galderma is at a much more advanced stage since it plans to take its first steps on the Zurich Stock Exchange on March 22. The dermatological care specialist has already communicated its range which will be 49 to 53 francs or 51 to 55.25 euros, and hopes to raise 2.3 billion Swiss francs.
In this regard, Jos Dijsselhof, general director of the Stock Exchange, is delighted with this operation and told Bloomberg that the number of upcoming operations was “probably one of the best we have seen in the last two years”.
The Italian coast will also be renewed with new blood. Golden Goose is indeed aiming for an IPO, this time in Milan, one of the temples of fashion. The Italian shoe brand known for its worn and aged-looking sneakers sold for an average of 400 to 500 euros, hopes to raise a little more than 1 billion euros.
“We are at the start of a recovery in the IPO cycle,” Suneel Hargunani, co-head of capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Citigroup, told the Financial Times. Confidence will build as operations progress,” continues the American banking specialist.
More timid suitors in France
In France, on the other hand, candidates for a future IPO are more timid. To date, only Sodexo has successfully piloted the IPO of Pluxee, its restaurant voucher division, at the beginning of February.
And again, this was a split-introduction. It is also on this ground that Vivendi intends to give independence to four of its entities which will be structured around Canal+, Havas, a company bringing together publishing and distribution and finally an investment company bringing together financial participations.
However, doubt hangs over the next IPO of the Consumer Health division, announced last October by Sanofi. According to Bloomberg, several investment funds have expressed interest in this activity which the pharmaceutical giant intends to put on the stock market in the fourth quarter “at the earliest”.
The awakening could also come from slightly more modest-sized operations. A few companies revealed last September their desire to go public. Including Imeon Energy, with its intelligence at the service of autonomous homes, or Groupe Morlot, a specialist in construction and the wood industry which would be candidates for an arrival on Euronext Growth this year…
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2024 BFM Bourse