Emerging market companies cornered a major chunk of the global IPOs as they accounted for 15 of the 20 largest issues in the year 2008, which include the stock sale of Reliance Power as the single Indian offering. “In 2008, the emerging markets were the source of 15 of the 20 largest IPOs worldwide including four each from China and Saudi Arabia,” a global IPO report of consultancy firm Ernst & Young said recently. Despite significant decline in IPO volumes, emerging markets were responsible for the growth in the primary market segment. “In 2008, the BRIC countries together hosted 163 deals worth $28 billion, a 62 percent drop in deal numbers and a 76 percent decline in funds raised from 2007,” Ernst & Young said. Of the top five IPOs four are from emerging market economies like Brazil, China, India and Saudi Arabia, while the biggest was one from the United States. The largest IPO of the year, and the biggest ever in US history, was the $19.7 billion Visa IPO on the NYSE, which represented 21 percent of total capital raised globally. The second largest IPO was the $5.7 billion offering of China Railway Construction and the third largest was Brazil's $4.1 billion IPO of oil and gas company OGX, the report added. The fourth in the list was India's Reliance Power, which had raised Rs11,560 crore in the largest IPO on the Indian capital market. “India's energy company Reliance Power was the fourth largest IPO, raising $3 billion on the Bombay Stock Exchange, but now trades far below its offer price,” the report said. Emerging market companies, particularly in oil and commodities, launched seven out of 10 largest IPOs including one from the Czech Republic, two each from Russia and Poland. Meanwhile, due to market turmoil the global IPO activity in 2008 fell by 61 percent in deal numbers and 67 percent in funds raised. The United States has raised the maximum capital through the IPO route, while, China launched the maximum number of IPOs, and Saudi Arabia was the host country for four of the world's top 20 initial public offerings. A sector wise analysis shows that the financial, energy and power and materials sectors raised the most IPO capital while real estate, healthcare and technology IPOs declined 90 percent on an average. “In 2008, the global financial crisis led worldwide IPO activity to plummet by more than half. Investor appetite and companies' willingness to list were severely undermined by tumbles in market indices,” the report said.
