There are a lot of interesting things to report about the year 2021, including the capital markets.

Despite the momentous and never-ending pandemic, many stock indices around the world have risen sharply and set course for records.

With a good 15,600 points recently, the Dax is up 14 percent.

The record high of 16,290 points from November is at least within reach.

This positive environment also benefited newcomers to the stock exchange.

Because 2021 is the strongest year in the world since 2000 in terms of the number of IPOs and also in terms of issuing volume. This is the result of an analysis by the auditing and consulting firm EY (Ernst & Young).

Kerstin Papon

Editor in business.

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A total of 2388 newcomers to the stock market were counted around the world this year - around two thirds more than in the previous year.

The issuing volume rose similarly significantly to 453 billion dollars (around 400 billion euros).

The market in Europe in particular has grown strongly.

Because compared to 2020, the number of IPOs has more than doubled from 191 to 485.

The volume of issues has almost tripled - from $ 27.5 billion to $ 81.1 billion.

China is weak

China (including Hong Kong), on the other hand, once again recorded most of the IPOs, but contrary to the general trend, IPO activity there was weaker in the second half of the year than in the previous year. According to EY, 593 companies dared to go public this year - 11 percent more than in the previous year. The volume only increased by 3 percent to $ 122.8 billion. The American market also developed strongly overall: the number of IPOs climbed by 86 percent to 416, the volume by 81 percent to around 155.7 billion dollars. In the fourth quarter alone, 621 companies around the world dared to step onto the trading floor, 16 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. Issuing volume rose 9 percent to $ 112 billion.

The year 2021 was an extremely strong one for IPOs, says Martin Steinbach, partner at EY.

The pandemic has repeatedly caused turbulence and uncertainty.

Nevertheless, the bottom line was that the investor sentiment was very positive.

The price fluctuations on the stock exchanges (volatility) were kept within limits, and there were no recent economic downturns.

At the same time, there is an enormous amount of money that is looking for promising investment opportunities.

All in all, the environment for IPOs is currently extremely good, says Steinbach.

The economy adjusted to the new reality relatively quickly.

And the more companies learned to deal with the pandemic, the less the risks associated with corona and possible new virus variants would be weighted by investors.

Technology companies preferred

Above all, digital business models continue to enjoy great popularity among investors, says Steinbach.

And so technology companies in particular attracted the interest of investors.

According to EY, every fourth IPO in the world and a third of the issue volume in this sector: There were a total of 611 IPOs with a volume of 147 billion dollars.

The pandemic gave the digital transformation of the economy an enormous boost, says Steinbach.

In addition, the willingness to rigorously put established business models to the test has risen sharply.

All of this leads to a steady influx of newcomers to the stock market.

Steinbach is certain that a large number of growing companies from the technology and health sector (“Health Care”) will also be listed on the stock market in 2022.