During the financial crisis and the following years, the number of IPOs in the Netherlands was limited. The last 18 months have seen a reversal of this trend, which is all the more remarkable given the weak IPO climate in Europe and the US at this time. There are numerous reasons why IPOs in the Netherlands have picked up, including the presence of interesting IPO candidates, government privatisations, and the front-loading of transactions to avoid Brexit issues. The nature of the 15 Dutch IPOs in this period differed. In some cases, existing shares were listed on Euronext Amsterdam, but no new or existing shares were offered to the public. Others were more traditional IPOs, targeting not only institutional investors but also reserving a tranche of shares for retail investors.
It seems unlikely that the near future will see a similar large number of new listings in the Netherlands. Euronext Amsterdam and the Dutch N.V. are nonetheless still attractive for selling shareholders, issuers and investors alike. The economic climate and market conditions seem, at the end of 2016, to be conducive to further listings. Accordingly, there are no immediate grounds for concern about the viability of the IPO market in the Netherlands.
Click here to download a recent article by De Brauw's Vivian Lee and Jan Willem Hoevers about this trend.
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