Make #ListedInFrankfurt even more attractive - Greetings to German Equity Forum 2019

25 Nov 2019

Make #ListedInFrankfurt even more attractive - Greetings to German Equity Forum 2019 By Hauke Stars, Member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Börse AG

Ladies and Gentlemen,
dear Readers,

The German Equity Forum (EKF), the largest information and network event on corporate financing via the stock exchange, is due to take place. Around 250 national and international companies from various sectors are taking the opportunity to present themselves to analysts and investors. On the Venture Stage, non-listed companies will also be presenting themselves – many of them from our Deutsche Börse Venture Network. 

The EKF in November is a good opportunity to take a look back: the stock markets developed rapidly in 2019 and the DAX has risen by around 2,500 points since the beginning of the year. The capital market environment has not taken up this development: Brexit, global trade conflicts and geopolitical challenges are affecting investor sentiment. As a result, issuers are reluctant to float their companies on the stock market. 

In terms of the number of IPOs on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, we therefore are not able to build on the record year of 2018. However, despite difficult conditions, the IPO of the Volkswagen subsidiary Traton was the fifth largest worldwide in the first half of the year. The issue volume amounted to around €1.4 billion. With the software company TeamViewer, we were able to accompany the largest technology IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for many years in September.


#ListedInFrankfurt

Deutsche Börse is very active in making the IPO in Frankfurt attractive for companies. From 2020, we will be offering a special event experience with a completely new room concept around the trading floor. In addition, we have continuously expanded our services for issuers and stock market aspirants in the past year.
 
With Investor Targeting, we organise investor meetings for Scale issuers in European cities such as London, Paris and Madrid. This makes it easier for these small and medium-sized companies to gain access to international institutional investors. However, there is a desire for broker-independent access to new investors and more diversification regardless of the segment. For this reason, Prime Standard companies have also been able to participate since this year.

The interest of Asian venture capitalists to participate in German investments is growing. We therefore for the first time invited start-ups from Deutsche Börse Venture Network to a roadshow in Asia in October. Growth companies were able to present themselves to venture capital and private equity investors on a small scale. The response from start-ups and investors was very positive.


Active with capital market partners

Together with its Capital Market Partners, Deutsche Börse has launched offerings that convey knowledge about the capital market before and after the IPO. The webinars – previously only for issuers – are now also available with new topics for non-listed companies. At the “Challenge Your Company” workshops, we have been informing growth companies in an exclusive circle and confidential setting about IPO topics since this year. And we are also strengthening our exchange with politicians with the aim of creating better conditions for IPOs. 
I am convinced that we are on the right track.
 
On behalf of the entire Deutsche Börse team, I wish you a pleasant time and exciting discussions at the EKF 2019!

Hauke Stars,
Member of the Management Board
German Stock Exchange
 

published in Going Public (December 2019)