Yahoo Finance IPO Rebound in Europe Falters as Volatility Dents Confidence
(Bloomberg) -- The revival in European initial public offerings is faltering as companies revisit their listing plans in the face of volatile markets.
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Permira-backed Golden Goose Group SpA, which was scheduled to start trading this week, pulled the plug on its Milan listing in fear of a lackluster debut, while Reuters reported Wednesday that Spanish apparel maker Tendam Brands SAU was also delaying its initial public offering.
Their decisions followed a bout of indiscriminate selling of European stocks last week, triggered by French President Emmanuel Macron calling a surprise election that risks ceding power to rivals at both ends of the political spectrum. After a renewed upswell in European IPO activity this year, the Golden Goose and Tendam delays signal a pause in share sales until the autumn.
“You can’t convince an international investor to allocate risk into Europe,” said Francois Rimeu, a strategist at La Francaise Asset Management in Paris. “At the moment, it’s quite clear.”
Separately, Greyhound bus owner Flix also recently postponed its plans for a June IPO in Frankfurt, although that preceded Macron’s election announcement.
IPO activity in Europe is now likely to take an early summer break after companies raised about $13.3 billion so far this year, more than double the amount over the same period in 2023. The only major IPO still standing is that of Spanish bread and pastry maker Europastry SA, which announced its intention to list earlier this week.
The shock call for a vote in France has triggered a rout in equity markets, with Europe’s benchmark suffering its worst week this year and a gauge for the biggest stocks in Paris slumping more than 5%. At the same time, an index measuring volatility surged to its highest level since October earlier this week.
European luxury stocks were under pressure even before the latest bout of volatility, another factor playing into Golden Goose’s pulled IPO. Behemoths such as LVMH have seen their shares lose ground as consumers’ appetite, especially in Asia, proved to be less vigorous than earlier expected for high-end apparel.
As such, the MSCI Europe Textiles Apparel & Luxury Goods Index has declined nearly 13% in the last three months. The sector’s multiples have fallen to 26-times forward earnings, well below the 34 times notched in 2021.
Further ahead, CVC Capital Partners Plc plans to list Polish retailer Zabka Polska SA in September in an offering valuing the company at $7.5 billion to $8 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Fast-fashion upstart Shein could also list around the same time at a potential £50 billion valuation in London.
For Golden Goose, a share sale at the top end of the price range would’ve raised as much as €595.7 million ($640 million) and valued the company at about €1.7 billion, if the underwriters had exercised their over-allotment option, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Golden Goose’s pulled listing is a “bad signal,” said Vega Invesment Managers’ Olivier David, a fund manager who participated in the IPOs of CVC Capital Partners in Amsterdam and dermatology company Galderma Group AG in Zurich earlier this year. “With the uncertainty on the French market, and by extension in Europe, there’s now a window currently closing down.”
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