A sigh of relief at the London Stock Exchange as French media group Canal+ listed in London at the start of the week. The company’s move to list in London is a legacy of the break up of Vivendi by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Bolloré is farming out the group onto a number of different European exchanges, with advertising agency Havas listing in Amsterdam this week and Louis Hachette Group stock going live in Paris. It is an interesing strategy, but not without its opponents. Activist funds have been opposing the plan, which they reckon is part of a scheme by the Bolloré family to increase their overall control over the conglomerate.
Most of the shareholders in Vivendi have backed the plan, which gives the UK’s LSE a much-needed shot in the arm. The exchange had been struggling with a lack of high profile listings and asset raising was not looking much better, with London trailing in 20th place globally behind the likes of Luxembourg and Malaysia (according to Bloomberg).
The 16% drop in the share price for Canal+ post-listing was a bit of a disappointment for shareholders, especially as Havas was up 6% on Monday in its debut in Amsterdam, and Louis Hachette stock gained 16% in Paris.
Parent company Vivendi will remain listed in Paris.
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Nasdaq sees bumper year for new listings
Nasdaq reported this week that it is going to beat the venerable NYSE in terms of new listings for the sixth year in a row. Wall Street is also looking at a pretty bullish year for new listings in 2025, in direct contrast to the City of London (see above).
Nasdaq saw 160 IPOs in 2024 which raised $22bn (numbers to 30 November). This easily beat the $17bn raised on the NYSE. Nasdaq said this was the highest listings volume for the exchange in three years and it could be an indicator of more US investor optimism with the Federal Reserve now cutting rates.
“We do think that conditions are right for a very robust IPO market starting in the new year,” Jeff Thomas, global head of listings at Nasdaq, told Reuters this week. “We’re very actively pitching companies that are talking about accessing the public markets in either Q1 or Q2.”
Part of the attraction for listing on Nasdaq and the NYSE is the gain in S&P 500 stocks, up 27% this year. The Nasdaq Composite is up over 33%. The largest IPO on Nasdaq this year was Lineage, a real estate investment trust.
Rally to list $13m dinosaur skeleton on 20 December
Rally, a platform which specialises in the sale of collectables, using fractional ownership, is now announcing an IPO of a complete dinosaur skeleton. The stegosaurus is currently being excavated on a private site in Wyoming. The IPO of the dinosaur is being valued at $13.75m, with 200,000 shares being made available to investors.
The dinosaur has been named ‘Steg’ but unlike most of the other opportunities on Rally there will not be a market made in the shares. The expectation is that Steg will be sold on within the next couple of years, likely via an auction. This reflects increased interest in dinosaur bones, with skeletons carrying hefty prices at auction – e.g. hedge fund manager Ken Griffin bought a stegosaurus skeleton for $44m this year at a Sotheby’s auction which is now being exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History.
Christie’s has also recently sold three dinosaur skeletons for £12m.
