Flotations cash slumps 60%

FUND-raising by companies floating on the London market fell 60% in the first four months of this year. Figures to be released today by the London Stock Exchange are expected to show that the London market has supplied £1.91bn of cash this year for initial public offerings, against £4.72bn in the same period last year.

But the LSE points to a flurry of recent listings and a growing pipeline of proposed flotations as evidence that the market is on the rebound.

The LSE also says that stripping out cash raised by international issuers provides a more realistic assessment of the market's health. That definition allows it to exclude last year's £3.09bn fund-raising by French mobile operator Orange, but to include the £1bn flotation of Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata.

Under that criteria the total raised from 36 initial offerings on the main market and the Alternative Investment Marke to 30 April 2002 is £1.91bn, compared with the £1.53bn garnered from 52 flotations in the first four months of last year.