Europe is increasingly looking like an also-ran in the global competition for initial public offerings. A string of companies recently cancelled their European debuts. Trendier groups like Soho House, Turkish e-commerce firm Hepsiburada and Italian vaccine vial maker Stevanato have meanwhile opted to migrate across the pond. A vicious cycle is forming.
Amazon.com-backed French parcel delivery company Colis Privé postponed its IPO on Monday, blaming market conditions. Livestock health company Huvepharma canned its 4 billion euro offering in June, saying it’s best off in the barn for now. Chemicals company BASF put a listing of its energy business on hold too, saying the market is underestimating gas and oil assets. French car-parts distributor Parts Holding Europe (known as Autodis) and $2 billion logistics operator Primafrio also pulled their deals.
True, a few enterprises in hipper businesses, like Spanish renewables firm Acciona Energia and Believe, a $1 billion French digital music company, got their listings away, but had to price at the bottom of their projected price ranges. Overall, European companies had a decent first quarter, selling $25 billion of stock, but the momentum slipped to just $19 billion in the last quarter, according to Refinitiv.
Hotter debuts are simply leapfrogging to New York, such as $4 billion Hepsiburada and $7 billion Stevanato. Despite the threat of a currency crisis at home, Hepsiburada jumped 12% in its debut. Membership Collective Group, parent of Soho House, which posh Brit Nick Jones founded in London, is headed to the Big Apple, too.
Years of middling aftermarket performance may explain investor ambivalence. The Renaissance IPO Index measuring rolling two-year post-listing performance shows around a 230% increase for American IPOs compared to just 125% for Europe, Middle East and Africa listings over the last five years. Better post-IPO trading, possibly boosted by hot technology stocks, has deepened the pool of investor capital in the United States relative to Europe, which also suffers from a relatively flabby economic outlook.
The danger for European capital markets is that this trend becomes self-fulfilling, especially for high growth e-commerce, tech or biopharma firms. The short-term remedy is for European companies to lowball their valuations to persuade more sceptical investors to hop on board. But the prospect of leaving money on the table will, longer-term, send those who can hurtling across the Atlantic.
Source: Reuters (by Dasha Afanasieva)