Baech (Switzerland)
The initial public offering (IPO) of Kabel Deutschland this week seems to be a clear evidence, that the market confidence comes back slowly. With a volume of almost 760 Million Euro it is the largest German IPO since the flotation of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) in November 2007. Last Monday (March, 22nd) Kabel Deutschland could place on the market 34.5 Million shares at a price of 22 Euro and celebrated its debut at the stock market.
This is only one of about 30 IPOs, which are planned this year in Germany. Thus, also Brenntag, a producer of chemicals as well as the fashion chain Tom Tailor and the Chinese manufacturer of fittings Joyou want to go public before Easter. Whilst everywhere else the number of IPOs is increasing since the mid of 2009, the financial center Frankfurt can now also benefit from this positive trend. „Even though the sentiment of investors bettters, until now only five of the twelve stock market newcomers this year in Europe list above their issue price of shares”, states Bernd M. Otto from Investment24 Research.
For the trader the growing number of IPOs is rather a sign that the ongoing upward trend of the stock markets could come to an end soon. „It remains to be seen, if the market will be able to absorb the planned new issues easily“, analyses Bernd M. Otto. A few weeks ago the press agency Bloomberg published in a report that equity mutual funds have recently invested so heavily in stocks that cash dropped to 3.6 percent of assets. The last time stock managers held such a small proportion was in mid 2007, shortly before the outbreak of the financial crisis.
