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January 23, 2007
Euro VC-Backed IPOs Up In 2006
Last year was the best for European VC-backed IPOs since 2000, according to VentureWire analyst Russ Garland in a report published in VentureWire Alert. (It is a free daily newsletter from DowJones VentureWire and provides a sampling of what is available with a full-subscription).
The region outperformed the US in terms of the number of floatations: 91 for Europe versus 56 in the US. The short report did not say if the US IPOs actually raised more money per company.
Garland also said that "more European venture-backed companies went public in 2006 than in any year since 2000, but it took them a lot longer and they didn't raise nearly as much capital". He was referencing VentureOne's latest analysis of the data. Here are some other details reported:
The median amount these companies raised in an IPO in 2006 was EUR13.1 million. That compares with a median of EUR42.1 million for the 183 venture-backed European companies that went public in 2000.The 2006 crop went a median of 5.9 years from getting their first equity to their IPO. In 2000, the median time to liquidity was 1.4 years. European companies acquired last year had gone just as long since their first venture round as those that went public - a median of six years.
The median pre-IPO valuation of the European companies was EUR41.5 million - up from EUR36.7 million in 2005, and the highest since 2001. VentureOne is owned by Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of VentureWire.
The good news is that the public markets in Europe were doing what they are supposed to in 2006, providing a "reliable source of fresh capital" for companies. But the bad news, at least from the VC perspective, is that not all IPOs are providing an exit for investors.
The a:c notes that this is something that has pretty much been the case for the past few years, and probably explains why many VC-backed companies choose the M&A, preferably all cash, route to the exit.
Another source, AltAssets, published an article on the same subject. There we could see that while the number of IPOs continues to climb each year since 2001, it is at about half the 2000 IPO bubblicious level of activity.
It will be interesting to see what happens this year as the European tech economy improves: will the IPO become a reliable exit channel for VCs (ignoring the debate about whether or not it should be the point of exit ) and will the length of time it takes to reach IPO shorten?
Link- VentureWire Alert Subscription
Read - Number of European venture-backed IPOs in 2006 highest since 2000 (AltAssets)
Read - Ten Tech IPOs In Europe Over $100M
Posted on January 23, 2007 06:28 AM | Posted to Being European | IPO | Permalink
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