IPOs are on track to register the lowest annual volume in the last ten years in 2023 if they maintain their current evolution, according to AFME

MADRID, 9 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Spanish companies increased their financing in the markets by 17% in the first half of the year, compared to the same period last year, despite the 82% drop in public sales offers (IPO), according to the annual report presented this Thursday by the Association of Financial Markets of Europe (AFME) about the performance of European markets during the first half of the year.

Specifically, the AFME study explains that this result in the Spanish case has been largely motivated by an annualized increase of 34% in the issuance of corporate bonds, up to 6,000 million euros. All in all, bond issuance remains below pre-pandemic levels, with volumes lower by 18% compared to 2019 and 22% compared to 2018.

For its part, the issuance of new shares also helped, since it grew by 12% thanks to the 70% increase in capital increases, which compensated for the fall in public sales offers (IPOs), and that is because These registered an "extremely low" level of activity in the first half of the year and decreased by the aforementioned 82% - in total, 23 million euros were accounted for in these operations.

In fact, AFME has shown that, if these levels are maintained during the second half of the year, IPOs will register the lowest annual volume in the last ten years in 2023.

Regarding high-yield bonds ('hihg yield', in the jargon of the sector), issues were reduced to nothing in the first half of the year - in the same period last year 1.1 billion euros were issued- , which represents a minimum level since 2009.

Within the issuance of bank loans, the origin of these decreased by 7% annualized between January and June 2023, with volumes still slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels (4% less compared to 2019 and 3% below from 2018 levels).

The ESG financing markets (environmental, social and good governance criteria), which range from sustainable bonds to green bonds, in the Spanish case led the country to become the fifth largest issuer of this type of bonds in the European Union (EU). ) between January and June - which represents 6% of total community financing -, thanks to the 16% annualized increase in the issuance of green bonds.

By issuer profile, the majority of green bonds were issued by non-financial companies with 3.7 billion euros, followed by entities backed by the government with 1.5 billion and the public sector with 1.4 billion.

It should be noted that, among the large issuers of green bonds, were Telefónica and Iberdrola with 1,000 million euros each, Banco Sabadell with 700 million and the Community of Madrid with 600 million.

Venture capital investment fell by 44% in Spain during the first six months of the year, a more significant decrease than that observed in the EU, which fell by 25%, or in the United States, which fell by 33%.

For its part, the Spanish financial-technological sector ('fintech', in the jargon of the sector) lost one place, reaching eighth place, in the community ranking that measures development capacity, since, "although a improvement in the generation of talent, there were no changes in the regulatory ecosystem and there was a 53% decrease in the degree of innovation," according to AFME.

Despite this situation, the report has indicated that investment in the 'fintech' sector increased by 30% in annualized terms, despite the global downward trend in financing after that of the European Union had been reduced to 55% and to 29 % in United States.

The report has pointed out that the Spanish capital market ecosystem was ranked 15th in the competitiveness index (which considers the availability of capital funds, liquidity of equity and currency markets, access to financing, digitalization and sustainability , etc.), four places below the 2022 result.

The most significant improvement in the last five years in Spain in terms of competitiveness, according to AFME assessments, has occurred in the transition towards a sustainable economy and in the construction of a more liquid equity market.

On the other hand, Spanish households ranked eighth in terms of volume of savings invested in capital markets, with the equivalent of 62% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) invested in listed shares, bonds, investment funds or investment products. insurance and pensions.

This rate was lower than the European Union average, but similar to that of countries such as Austria, Finland, Luxembourg and Malta, while countries such as Denmark are in the lead, with 187% of GDP; United Kingdom, with 182%, and Netherlands, with 174%.

Spain has stood out in terms of ELTIF instruments (European Long Term Investment Funds), as it maintained third position in the ranking (behind Italy and France) with 32 instruments marketed at the end of the first half of 2022, compared to 26 in 2022.