Euronext boss says long awaited CVC debut shows the IPO market is back

Pelican Press · April 26, 2024

Euronext boss says long awaited CVC debut shows the IPO market is back

The highly anticipated trading debut of private equity group CVC Capital Partners shows that Europe’s initial public offering market is back on track, Euronext CEO Stéphane Boujnah told CNBC on Friday.

Shares of Amsterdam-listed CVC, one of Europe’s largest buyout companies, traded nearly 24% higher at around 12:30 p.m. London time.

The stock had opened at more than 17 euros ($18.25) per share, significantly above the 14 euro offer price, reaffirming strong investor appetite for the company. The IPO is widely expected to be one of Europe’s largest this year.

CVC, which expects to raise between 2 billion euros and 2.3 billion euros from the deal, said in a statement that the IPO was oversubscribed multiple times and increased to accommodate robust demand from institutional investors across the globe.

“It is a very strong signal of the comeback of IPOs in Europe, in particular in continental Europe,” Euronext’s Boujnah told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday.

Boujnah said the Euronext platform, the largest stock exchange in Europe and one of the largest in the world, had welcomed 11 stock listings since the beginning of the year.

“That’s a signal of both the success of the Euronext platform and the competitiveness of the Euronext platform — and a signal of the IPO market being back,” he added.

The Euronext NV stock exchange office in the La Defense business district in Paris, France, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Boujnah’s comments come after a sharp downturn in the number of companies that listed on the Euronext last year, and after several high-profile ********* firms opted to list in the U.S. instead.

British chip designer Arm, for example, went public in New York last year, dealing a ***** to the U.K.’s post-Brexit vision. And Irish building materials company CRH