New Wave of Optimism
After record financings for European biotech companies on the stock market in 2015 and significantly lower activity in 2016, there is currently a growing optimism that sees stock markets as a viable route for biotech companies to access further capital. According to the analysis, which also includes all European biotech firms listed on the US Nasdaq, all of the key figures for 2017 show new signs of confidence. The 233 European biotech companies raised a total of €5.09bn of financial proceeds until the end of 2017 – 54% more than in the same period of time in 2016 (€3.30bn)
IPO window open
In 2017, a total of 19 European biotech IPOs took place, raising a total figure of €815m. This year shows an increase of 47% on the same period in 2016. The majority of 15 firms opted for one of the 14 European trading centres, with four firms floating on US Nasdaq, instead. Compared to the previous year, investor appetite was higher and the sums larger. The greatest IPO volumes in 2017 were recorded for ObsEva SA (€90m), InflaRx (€85m) and Nucana Biomed (€86m) on the US Nasdaq.
Currently, the most attractive stock market locations are Paris (47) and London (44). However, the number of listed biotech companies in Sweden has also increased by up to 41. The shares of 35 European companies are currently traded on US Nasdaq and the most recent US IPO was conducted by German InflaRx (€86m).
Follow-on financings
US investors’ appetite was revived in 2017 following a decline in 2016. The 35 listed companies attracted a combined total of €1.83bn in follow-on financings, including 5 secondary listings which alone amounted to a total capital of €553.3m. Compared to their counterparts which are listed on European stock exchanges only, the firms on the US Nasdaq generated significantly more capital this year and with greater average volumes (US: €81m vs. Europe: €32.7m).
This text is part of BIOCOM's "6th Analysis of European biotech companies on the stock markets: US vs. Europe":
