Europe’s IPO market stalls as companies turn to M&A amid volatility

Europe’s IPO engine has all but stalled. Klarna, the Swedish payments giant and one of Europe’s most valuable fintechs, isn’t even considering local stock exchanges. Instead, it’s going straight to New York. That’s where the money is, and that’s where others are going ￰0￱ far this year, 153 companies have gone public in the U.

S., raising $17.7 billion. Europe? Just 57 deals. $5.5 billion. That’s ￰1￱ to reporting from CNBC, the gap isn’t closing anytime ￰2￱ Rueger, global co-head of Equity Capital Markets at UBS, said Asia has been “incredibly active this year” and is leading alongside North ￰3￱ said there are “pockets of strength” in Europe, but admitted the real momentum is outside the ￰4￱ Foley, global head of Capital Markets at JP Morgan, called Europe’s IPO market “muted,” while saying the ￰5￱ has more than 30 IPOs in the pipeline for the rest of the ￰6￱ ditch long IPO timelines for faster M&A deals Companies in Europe are tired of ￰7￱ IPO process takes too long, between three to twelve months, and the risks are ￰8￱ Murray, co-head of ECM for EMEA at Mizuho, said , “The IPO process is quite long, and during that process you can have market risk.” Speaking from Tokyo, where he’s pitching European companies to Asian investors, Jonathan pointed out how quickly deals can fall ￰9￱ bad day in the markets or a peer stock crash can nuke valuations ￰10￱ the market isn’t even performing ￰11￱ MSCI France index is up only 4.5% this ￰12￱ European indexes only started recovering in August after crashing earlier in the ￰13￱ strategist Emmanuel Cau said while the U.

S., China, and Japan are hitting new highs, Europe is stuck; no AI momentum, and way too much geopolitical noise. It’s dead weight. That’s why private equity firms are avoiding IPOs altogether. They’re choosing M&A; cleaner, faster, and more ￰14￱ said private equity sponsors don’t like taking a company public unless they can fully ￰15￱ they’re still holding stock post-IPO, they’re on the hook for whatever happens ￰16￱ in this market, that’s not a bet they want to ￰17￱ market slows as quality bar stays high The public markets are picky ￰18￱ everything gets ￰19￱ Erpici, co-head of ECM for EMEA at Jefferies, said things aren’t like they were in ￰20￱ market’s applying a “quality filter.” If a company doesn’t meet that, it stays out.

“We are in an orderly market,” Luca ￰21￱ added that while the bar is still high, some big deals could land in Q4 and a “strong pipeline is building for 2026 and 2027.” But the filter is killing off private equity ￰22￱ explained that most PE-backed companies can’t deliver stable returns every quarter, and public markets demand ￰23￱ a company can’t do it, it has no business being public. It’s safer to stay ￰24￱ of the rare exceptions was Galderma, a skincare company owned by ￰25￱ listed successfully in 2024, and its shares have jumped over 125% since the ￰26￱ followed that up by selling another 5.3 billion Swiss francs (about $6.6 billion) worth of stock this ￰27￱ yes, good companies can still ￰28￱ just aren’t many of them ready.

Meanwhile, IPO pipelines globally were up 2% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year, based on data from ￰29￱ shows deal flow might pick up in the next six to nine months — but most of that won’t come from ￰30￱ and companies are heading to the ￰31￱ Bernatova, who recently took crypto firm The Ether Machine public in a $2.5 billion SPAC deal, explained why: “Liquidity is ￰32￱ you don’t have trading liquidity, being public is not as valuable.” Europe doesn’t have ￰33￱ U. S. does, and that’s what ￰34￱ also pointed to another issue: ￰35￱ the U. S., the NYSE and Nasdaq all fall under one rulebook, the ￰36￱ Europe, every country has its own regulator.

It’s messy, slow, and investors hate it. That’s not good when future industries like AI and renewable energy need billions in ￰37￱ said these companies have no choice but to look to the ￰38￱ they want to raise serious ￰39￱ while bankers debate that, sellers are already gone. Europe’s IPO pipeline isn’t just shrinking. It’s drying ￰40￱ smartest crypto minds already read our ￰41￱ in?

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