British Conservatism of Russian IPOs
// Monitoring: equity offering in Europe
PricewaterhouseCoopers yesterday published data of IPO Watch Europe, the regular review of companies’ initial offerings at the main stock exchanges in Europe. It shows that the number of IPOs there grew by 9 percent, up to 653; the amount of attracted funds grew by 27 percent, and the total of ˆ65.4 billion was collected.
However, 2006 became the first year of international IPOs’ decrease both in London and at Deutsche Boerse: there were by 6 percent less IPOs than in 2005. Euronext became the IPO leader. Although London remains the main platform for IPOs in Europe, according to PWC, there were 297 IPOs there in 2006. Thus, the LSE provided less than a half of IPOs in Europe in 2006. In 2005, a very good year for London, there were 354 IPOs.
Rosneft provided the record amount of IPO-drawn funds for the LSE. Its IPO became the largest one in Europe in 2006. The next are French banking group Natexis, which sold shares at Euronext, and British insurance company Standard Life, which held its IPO at the LSE.
Russian issuers’ preference for London is not the only trend in Russian IPOs, that are often held ‘against the market’. The five largest IPOs at the LSE in 2006 include three Russian companies (Komstar is the third in the rating, and Severstal is the fourth). The sectoral structure of Russian IPOs in Europe contradicts European trends: the IPOs of Russian companies dealing with consumer and industrial services were few in 2006.
London’s investment banks think that Russian issuers’ preferences are out-of-fashion, EU-wise. Anyway, the IPO fashion in Europe is different from what Moscow thinks of it. Even at Europe’s ‘alternative’ platforms, London’s AIM gradually gives way to newly created EuroMTF, Alternext, EntryStandart. Yet, only the year of 2007, which promises to beat IPO records again, will show whether Russian conservatism in relation to London’s City is justified.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 10, 2007
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