2014 will be remembered on global financial markets as a golden year for IPOs. In fact, compared to 2013, prices soared last year: globally there were 1.206 offers, with total funding of 256,5 billion dollars, up respectively by 35% and 50% on a year-on-year basis . The numbers are contained in the EY Global Ipo Trend study, according to which 2014 was the best year since 2010 in terms of both revenues and volumes.
Not only that: all of the new listed companies recorded a better performance than that of the main indices on the planet, producing an average return of 17,1%, against +12,3% of the major stock exchanges.
As for the analysis by sector, from the point of view of IPOs, the most active sectors were those of health care (193 offers, equal to 16% of the world total), technology (167 IPOs, 14%) and industry (142 IPOs, 12%).
In terms of geographical distribution, the US led the world ranking of IPOs last year, with 224 listings and total funding of 54,5 billion dollars. The silver medal goes to China (206 IPOs and raised 65,8 billion), while Japan closes the podium (83 IPOs, raised 11,8 billion).
The European markets also performed well, where the financial sponsors proceeded to liquidate assets acquired at the peak of the 2006-2007 economic cycle. In detail, there were 328 IPOs promoted by financial sponsors, for total funding of 124,4 billion, up 86% on 2013. A result equal to 48% of the total value of global IPOs and 27% of their volume. This is the best performance since 2001.
Furthermore, 2014 was also characterized by many cross-border deals: in fact, there were 129 IPOs with these characteristics (10,7%), the highest percentage since 2007. 52% of these transactions were carried out on US stock exchanges. The other destinations of foreign quotations are London (22% of offers), Australia (9%), Singapore (4%), Germany (2%) and Hong Kong (1%).
Finally, the queen IPO of 2014 was certainly that of Alibaba, which reached and exceeded the peak of 25 billion dollars. And it wasn't just an annual record, but the richest offer of all time.
