2023-11-24 17:16:01
Evil tongues could assume that it can only be a funeral service if there is an “IPO Night” in Frankfurt. After all, there are hardly any IPOs here, and the number of flops has clearly predominated recently. But host Christiane Götz-Weimer set the tone in her welcome on Thursday evening in the Metzler Hall of the Frankfurt Städel: “If the financial market needs a tailwind, let’s just start making wind.” The Weimer Media Group and the Deutsche Börse invited people to the Städel Art Museum to celebrate “The Art of the IPO” for the first time.
During the course of the evening, Hugo Falter, board member of the excellent Partec AG from Munich, described the stock exchange as a stage that needed to be reached, just as actors and painters only become true artists through exposure to the public. However, many people see things differently on the stock exchange stage. Because once you’re on this stage, you’ll be scrutinized mercilessly by analysts and investors, you’ll have to show publicly what you can do, and you’ll be told mercilessly by the share price every second what you think of your performance. An idea that makes the family-run middle class shudder. He finds this type of transparency and publicity so intimidating that he forgoes the attractive equity of the stock market and prefers to raise money through banks and private financial investors.
Meanwhile, 100 guests came together in Frankfurt who, as bankers, investors and entrepreneurs, were interested in the stock market. They know what can be done with the stock market’s capital and can perhaps also gain something positive from the critical gaze they are exposed to on the stock exchange stage. In his eulogy for Porsche AG, which was awarded in the “Outstanding IPO” category, publisher Wolfram Weimer quoted Ferdinand Porsche: “If someone doesn’t make mistakes often, they haven’t challenged themselves enough.” In this respect, 430 companies in Germany are still taking on the challenge of the stock market . There were once 700.
Porsche as a big exception
While Porsche AG’s IPO in September 2022 was actually outstanding in many respects – it came to the Dax’s annual low in an environment characterized by fears of gas shortages, raised a record amount, and the price rose in the months after – the air went wrong much thinner in Germany. The Dortmund hydrogen company Thyssenkrupp Nucera was recognized as an “Impact IPO” because of its positive influence on companies and the capital market, with the company just as largely causing price losses to investors as the Munich quantum computer company Partec as a “Smallcap IPO”.
Lufthansa ultimately prevailed in the “Extraordinary Equity Financing” category against nominated companies such as Siemens Energy and Vonovia, which most recently probably deserved the title of “Extraordinary Capital Destroyers”. The Lufthansa file also got into serious trouble and had to be relegated from the DAX, but was honored for its capital management in the Corona crisis. CFO Remco Steenbergen recalled that with Corona, 85 percent of the company’s sales with more than 100,000 employees collapsed overnight and how the company got back on its feet with state aid, which was ultimately a good deal for taxpayers, but also thanks to the capital market came.
Daniel Mohr Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Daniel Mohr Published/Updated: Recommendations: 21 Marcus Jung and Hanno Mußler Published/Updated: Recommendations: 43
It is worth every effort to emphasize the benefits of the capital market, including its public criticism and control function, especially in Germany, which is skeptical of stocks, where Birkenstock, Linde and also Biontech recently moved to New York. The bottom line is that the capital market creates a win-win-win situation by raising capital for companies to invest, providing investors with high long-term returns and ultimately helping an economy achieve more growth, innovation and jobs. And perhaps there will be enough award-worthy IPOs by next fall to make the Frankfurt IPO Night a good tradition.
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