- In 2018, 1,448 transactions were carried out, which means a 17% drop in activity
- This decline, however, is offset by an increase of 5% in the value of operations, which reach 219.4 billion dollars.
- The United States was the most active nation in local IPOs, with a total of 200 operations worth 41.7 billion dollars.
- “We expect a rebound in 2019 as the new governments settle and the certainty increases once again”.
The total value of IPOs in the world will close 2018 with an increase of 5%, driven by Tencent Music and SoftBank transactions, even though the global volume decreased by 17% due to uncertainties surrounding trade protectionism and the resolution of Brexit, according to a study prepared by Baker McKenzie.
“It has been another year of strong winds against geopolitical against protectionism, Brexit and the general uncertainty caused by elections around the world. All this has done little to stop the activity of the capital market among certain issuers. In particular, we have seen an increase in the value of cross-border IPOs in 2018, largely as a result of the increase in companies listed on different exchanges and in capital by Chinese companies that operate large groups of investors in different markets. Hong Kong and the United States. We expect a rebound in 2019 as the new governments settle and the certainty increases once again, “said Koen Vanhaerents, Global Head of Capital Markets at Baker McKenzie.
At a global level, large high-value transactions – more than 1,000 million dollars known as mega deals – are compensating for a more conservative year in terms of the number of transactions compared to 2017. After the maximum of ten years in 2017, where they took out of 1,739 IPOs, in 2018 there were 1,448 transactions, which represents a 17% drop in activity.
According to the study, this decrease, however, is offset by an increase of 5% in the value of operations -which reach 219.4 billion dollars, driven by the incorporation to the markets during the month of December of Tencent Music in New York (1.2 billion dollars) and the SoftBank registry in Tokyo, worth 21.2 billion dollars.
As a result of the drop in the number of IPOs this year there was a general decline in domestic IPOs worldwide. In general, the number of domestic operations was reduced to 1,231 operations, a decrease of 21% in 2018, which is equivalent to a decrease of 11% in raising capital, amounting to 158,200 million dollars. Concerns about the Brexit resolution caused London to not figure in the top 10 local markets by volume, with only 49 new companies listed on London markets.
In contrast, despite the complicated year with the mid-term elections in the United States and trade tensions with China, the United States was the most active nation in local IPOs, with a total of 200 operations worth 41.7 billion . This represents an increase of 18% in volume with respect to last year, being 96% higher compared to the total of the national IPOs in 2016, when the last general elections were held in the United States. On the other hand, as expected, the Tokyo Stock Exchange will lead the table of leaders in IPOs by value, with an increase of 337% to 26,600 million as a result of the imminent listing in the same of SoftBank.
