“We’ll bring a sofa”
“We’ll bring a sofa” Renata Bandov, Head of Pre-IPO & Capital Markets, Deutsche Börse AG
The start into the IPO year 2018 was good. Very good, in fact, says Renata Bandov, Head of Pre-IPO & Capital Markets. Moreover, she explains why the trading floor of Frankfurt Stock Exchange can even become a living room.
Renata, how did the first half of 2018 go in terms of IPOs at Frankfurt Stock Exchange?
Renata Bandov and her team at Listing & Issuer Services
attended to 13 IPOs in the first half year.
Interest in IPOs has increased significantly both in Prime Standard and in Scale, the listing segment for small and medium-sized companies, SME for short.
With 13 IPOs, it was the best first half year since 2007. And if we look at it in terms of the placement volume, which amounted to €7.3 billion, it was even the strongest half-year since 2000.
What were the highlights?
Certainly, one of the highlights was the mega-IPO of Siemens Healthineers. It was the biggest IPO in Germany for decades with a market capitalisation of almost €40 billion. Additionally, the IPO of Deutsche Bank's asset-management arm DWS was definitely another highlight in the first half. In general, we are more than pleased with how Scale has developed: until today, 50 companies have been listed in Scale with Cyan and Stemmer Imaging joining in the first half of 2018. Another promising sign is that the online furniture retailer home24 already made it onto the trading floor – one of six Deutsche Börse Venture Network members who have gone public in Frankfurt.
At the IPO of home24, it was cosy on the trading floor of
Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
It was really challenging but also exciting for our committed team. Every IPO is different and an extraordinary moment for every company. We want to make it an unforgettable experience for them. If necessary, we realise even unusual requests and turn the trading floor into a living room as we did for home24. On the day of the IPO, the customer is emotionally overwhelmed when he rings the opening bell on the trading floor. In this moment, you know what you worked for so hard the weeks before.
What are you and your team currently working on?
We are always dedicated in developing new services and products that create value for our customers – before, during and after an IPO. Just to name a few: we introduced investor targeting, a service for companies listed in Scale to extend their investor base. We extended our subscription functionality DirectPlace to Prime Standard companies, so it is not only available for Scale companies. Moreover, we are looking into enhancing our research report services.
On the regulatory side, we check and support the EU initiative of SME growth market certification. As this is an initiative to simplify SME access to public markets, we are staying in close contact with political decision makers. We see potential improvement for the German capital market in the field of tax and regulation.
In addition, the conversion of the trading floor is in full swing. Once it is finished, you will see an improvement in the framework conditions for IPOs and issuers can expect even more convenience and visibility.
And finally, together with Deutsche Börse Venture Network, we are in the process of expanding our network of pre-market companies and gathering interest in future IPOs. This is all part of further strengthening our positioning #ListedInFrankfurt.