Differences of an IPO in Germany, Europe and USA

Last week, Venionaire Partner Martin Steininger (on the left) and Alexander Rapatz (at the center) participated at the 3rd IPO conference in Munich, which was hostet by FCF Fox Corporate Finance. The conference addressed corporate executives and their shareholders, as well as investors from the venture capital and private equity industry.

This year’s presenters included several investment banks, such as Deutsche Bank, Oddo Seydler Bank, KBC Securities NV and Stifel Nicolaus & Company, which provided deep practical insights on listing implications from a technical and strategic perspective. Furthermore the stock exchanges NYSE, NASDAQ, Deutsche Börse AG and Euronext explained their individual listing requirements, specific benefits and advantages. Legal and regulatory topics were illustrated by the international law firms Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins and Paul Hastings.

In addition, FCF published its annual market study „IPO valuation – comparison in the US and EU“, which analyses the different valuation regimes in the US and Europe, based on historic IPO activities. Key findings were in particular, that the US IPO market generally offers higher IPO valuations than the UK, Europe and German markets. The US market shows in particular strength in small and mid cap IPOs, while European exchanges have rather micro caps (smaller than EUR 30m offerings). The valuation and performance gap is particularly large in growth industries, such as consumer discretionary, consumer staples, healthcare, information technology and industrials, making the US the premier listing location for these sectors. However, going and being public in the US is generally – with respect to underwriting fees, legal costs, etc. –  more expensive than in Europe.

The IPO Conference gave us the opportunity to strengthen our ties with key players in the German financial market. If you want to know more about how to tell a great equity story and convince investors from your company, please contact us now.