PRINT THIS PAGE Venture-backed European companies double IPOs in second quarter from a year ago28/07/2005. Source: AltAssets. 
 A total of 14 venture-backed European companies completed initial public offerings in the second quarter of 2005, compared to seven in the second quarter of 2004 and seven in the first quarter of 2005. This is the highest number since the second quarter of 2001, which also saw 14 IPOs, according to the European Liquidity Report from VentureOne.
These companies raised a total of €313.5m, an increase of 139 per cent over the €130.9m raised a year ago.
Steve Harmston, director of international research at VentureOne, said, 'While IPOs in the US declined considerably this quarter, in Europe, a small but significant IPO window remains open for the most promising entrepreneurial companies, although they are taking longer to reach this exit.
'One factor that may relate to the varying exit climates in the US vs. Europe is that while the regulatory environment has become more stringent for IPOs in the US, in Europe, the maturing of AIM and new exchanges such as Alternext are making it easier for smaller companies to achieve exits via the public market. The third quarter is likely to be a quiet period because of European vacation patterns, but it will be interesting to see what happens by the end of the year,' Harmston added.
The distribution among major industries was spaced more evenly in Europe than in the US, where most of the IPOs were for healthcare companies. In Europe, six of the second-quarter IPOs were in the healthcare industry, five were IT companies, two were products-and-services companies, and one was an advanced materials company.
The largest IPO of the quarter was for Arpida, a Münchenstein, Switzerland-based drug discovery firm which raised €62.9m in its offering and had a post valuation of €190.7m.
By geography, seven of the IPO companies were from the UK, while France and Belgium each had two, and Switzerland, Poland and Demark each had one apiece.
The time it took these companies to go from initial financing to IPO grew to a median six years, from 4.3 years in the second quarter of 2004.
In other venture-backed exits, there were 32 mergers-and-acquisitions deals for European venture-backed companies in the second quarter - a decline from the 48 that occurred in the same quarter of 2004.
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