BVK research highlights IPO potential

According to a recent study conducted by the BVK, private equity firms own stakes in 132 German companies that are ready to float. The BVK surveyed 111 of its members. Half the respondents - 56 firms - said they had at least one company that was ready for an initial public offering. The survey found differing views on when the German IPO market would fully reopen. According to Dealogic, the investment banking research firm, there has not been an IPO worth more than E100m in Germany for two years. Two semiconductor companies, X-Fab semiconductor Foundries and Siltronic, pulled their planned IPOs in March 2004. According to the BVK study, only nine respondents expect the IPO market to reopen this year with almost half (43%) saying the new issue market would not restart until the second half of the next year. A quarter expected it to be as late as 2006. Tom Troubridge, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers London is reported to have said: 'As the pulling of the two technology IPOs in Germany may have shown, it is perhaps too early to bring companies to market that are not generating strong cashflow and paying dividends.' Several German private-equity backed companies have publicly appointed banks to lead their deals. At the end of March, Auto Teile-Unger is reported to have said it plans to float by the end of the third quarter of this year. Doug Hanson, the private equity firm that holds 72% of the firm is expected to sell most of its holding in the offer led by Credit Suisse First Boston and HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt.

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