London a top destination for IPOs

A strong final quarter made 2006 a record year for European IPOs, with London
finishing top of the league table.

Research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which tracks the volume and value of IPOs
on the main European exchanges, found that there were 212 IPOs between October
and December.

The Big Four firm claims that many international companies chose to list in
London rather than New York, leading to the capital’s stellar performance. In
total, 91 international companies chose London, with just 22 going to New York.

The 212 Q4 IPOs were up on the 126 recorded in Q3 and an improvement on Q4
2005, when 196 IPOs were recorded. The total value of IPOs during Q4 2006
reached 25.7bn euros (£16.9bn) – the highest figure for a three-month period
since PwC began its IPO Watch Survey in 2001.

Although London was by far the largest market, raising 10.3bn euros in Q4,
Euronext hosted three of the top five IPOs, including the largest, that of
French bank Natixis, which raised 4.2bn euros.

There were 651 IPOs, which raised 66bn euros in 2006. The US, in comparison,
raised just 36.7bn euros with 224 IPOs. China raised 47.4bn euros from 137 IPOs.

www.pwc.com/uk