display
Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Unsettled by the corona pandemic, hardly any companies dared to go public this year.
Only five companies went public in the strictly regulated Prime Standard, shows a study by the Hamburg consulting firm Kirchhoff Consult.
That was two more than last year.
But the total value of the shares issued fell by almost 75 percent compared to the already weak previous year to around 0.9 billion euros - that is a low since the global financial crisis in 2009. IPOs with a volume of over one billion euros did not occur in the Corona year.
Fear of the epidemic, shutdowns and economic slumps led to immense fluctuations in the financial markets - poison for IPOs.
The Dax, for example, plunged around 40 percent in the spring before recovering rapidly with generous government aid and the loose monetary policy of the central banks.
The US presidential election also caused rate fluctuations.
display
“2020 was an unpredictable year for IPOs,” said Klaus Rainer Kirchhoff, CEO of Kirchhoff Consult.
Companies canceled their plans or moved the aisle onto the floor - including the energy company Wintershall Dea.
There was also turbulence internationally: The record-breaking IPO of the Chinese financial giant Ant Group was called off at short notice.
One of the few IPOs in Germany in 2020 was that of the armaments company Hensoldt with an issue volume of almost 403 million euros.
In Knaus Tabbert (mobile homes), PharmaSGP Holding (Pharma) and Compleo Charging Solutions (charging stations), three companies went public, whose industries grew despite the Corona crisis.
There was also a private placement by technology holding Brockhaus Capital Management.
The spin-off of Siemens Energy from the Munich Dax group was not taken into account in the study.
Siemens shareholders' papers from Siemens Energy were automatically posted to the depot.
Deutsche Börse's Prime Standard is the segment with the highest transparency requirements for companies.
In addition, two companies made their debut in the scale segment for start-ups: the handbag online retailer Fashionette and the software company Exasol.
display
Kirchhoff is more confident about the coming year.
If the hope for effective corona vaccines is fulfilled and the pandemic becomes more manageable, some companies could push onto the trading floor.
"Many attractive companies are ready for the stock exchange," said CEO Jens Hecht.
Expect 12 to 15 new issues.
Kirchhoff counts the oil and gas company Wintershall Dea, the software developer Suse, the science publisher Springer Natur and the online fashion retailer About You among the candidates who could reach a market value in the billions.
IPOs have hardly played a role in Germany for years.
Many companies shy away from the capital market and traditionally prefer to finance themselves through loans from their house banks or issue bonds.
Last year there were at least two billion IPOs in the software company Teamviewer and the Volkswagen truck subsidiary Traton - otherwise there was largely a lull.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201208-99-609291 / 2