Euronext Delays Decision On IPO

Carla Johnson, InvestorsOffshore.com

28 March 2001

Euronext, the pan-European equities exchange formed last year by the merger of the Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam stock exchanges, announced recently that it will delay making the final decision on its planned flotation whilst it monitors market conditions. The Initial Public Offering has already been put back once, although a spokesman said that the initial move from May to June 2001 was not due to uncertainty regarding market conditions.

Euronext was formed last year by the merger of the Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels stock exchanges, and in January, several senior banks, including ABN Amro Rothschild and BNP Paribas were appointed as lead managers for its forthcoming IPO. It now seems, however, that the flotation may not be coming forth as quickly as many had hoped.

Although the exchange's chairman, Jean-Francois Theodore told a news conference last week that a June IPO was still on the cards, there are rumours that the eventual outcome will depend heavily on the fate of Deutsche Boerse, whose share prices Euronext has apparently been monitoring for some time, to see whether the former will be able to withstand the poor market conditions that are dogging both European and US markets. Deutsche Boerse went public in January, valued at 3.4 billion euros, and generated proceeds of 980 million euros, and analysts has estimated that Euronext (if it ever actually gets that far!) would be valued at 3-4 billion euros.

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