Porsche’s one-off blowout

Porsche's Oliver Blume and Lutz Meschke pose next to the bull outside the stock exchange before Porsche's IPO in Frankfurt. Photo: Reuters

The biggest IPO in Europe for a decade has not generated the kind of excitement that might have been expected in calmer times. Porsche’s flotation was solid enough, but its structure and unusual nature make it a poor proxy for the broader equity capital markets business, which is on its knees.

November 01, 2022

A company best known for its pricey supercars seems an unlikely name to bring to Europe’s equity capital markets in the teeth of a cost-of-living crisis. It might be an even less obvious candidate at a time when initial public offerings around the world have collapsed amid brutal market downturns as central banks race to tighten monetary conditions.

But German automaker Porsche AG ploughed on with its flotation at the end of September, bringing Europe’s biggest IPO in 11 years and the second-biggest equity deal of any kind in the world so far this year. A partly exercised overallotment option brought the final deal size to €9.08 billion, making it the biggest flotation in Europe since the $10 billion listing of Glencore in 2011.

Porsche’s one-off blowout

The biggest IPO in Europe for a decade has not generated the kind of excitement that might have been expected in calmer times. Porsche’s flotation was solid enough, but its structure and unusual nature make it a poor proxy for the broader equity capital markets business, which is on its knees.

Jump to:

To unlock this article

Topics