Exclusive-Deutsche Boerse, Euronext step up battle against IPO flight to US

Charlie Conchie

Tue, May 13, 2025, 12:18 PM 4 min read

By Charlie Conchie

LONDON (Reuters) -Two of Europe's large banal speech operators are stepping up efforts to clasp section archetypal nationalist offerings successful the look of U.S. competition, with selling and probe challenging the cognition that New York-listed companies fetch higher valuations.

Stock exchanges successful Europe and the UK person been deed by a drought of IPOs implicit the past 2 years and a fig of section firms choosing to interval oregon determination superior listings to the U.S. for its deeper pools of superior and perchance higher valuations.

Deutsche Boerse, which operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, is informing of sluggish post-IPO performance, higher costs and the menace of litigation for firms that database successful the U.S., according to a papers shared with German companies and IPO advisers successful caller weeks, and Reuters.

It recovered that astir two-thirds of companies that listed successful Europe, including Germany, roseate connected their archetypal time of trading, portion lone astir fractional of European companies that listed successful the U.S. gained connected their marketplace debuts. Over clip the IPOs from the portion besides fared amended successful Europe than successful the United States.

The information doesn't notation valuation astatine IPO, but the speech highlighted successful its study respective examples of European-listed companies trading astatine a premium to U.S.-listed peers.

Euronext, which operates 7 markets successful cities including Amsterdam and Paris, is besides readying to reissue a akin insubstantial challenging the content that U.S.-listed firms pull higher valuations than their European peers, its spokesperson told Reuters.

"We truly spot much a competition, if you will, betwixt Europe and the U.S. marketplace successful presumption of listings, alternatively than wrong Europe," Stefan Maassen, caput of superior markets and corporates astatine Deutsche Boerse told Reuters.

Exchanges gain fees from companies that database connected their platforms and from brokers for trading of securities, and are seen arsenic captious by policymakers to pull investment.

DEEPER MARKETS

European officials person been looking for ways to deepen the continent's superior markets arsenic the extent and size of U.S. markets are a gully for those eyeing a listing.

The S&P500 scale has a marketplace capitalisation of $49.5 trillion, astir 4 times that of Europe's Stoxx 600, according to LSEG information based connected Monday's closing prices.

European officials are besides considering caller listing rules to amended entree to financing.

The efforts by Deutsche Boerse and Euronext to curb New York's allure for European firms echo those of the London Stock Exchange which circulated a “mythbusting” papers successful March, questioning the cognition that U.S.-listed companies pull higher valuations than those successful London.