Private acquisitions have stripped more than $1tn from European equity markets in the past decade, according to a new report underlining how stock markets are losing out in the private capital boom.
The trend poses a “much bigger threat” for European capital markets than defections of listed companies to Wall Street, according to a new report by HSBC Global Research and think-tank New Financial.
The report identified 1,013 European-listed companies that have been acquired by private equity or unlisted companies in the past decade, compared with 130 that had moved to the US stock market.
“The inability of public markets adequately to recognise the value of companies on such a scale is problematic,” said Ian Stuart, a senior executive at HSBC. There is a “clear sense of the balance shifting away from public markets towards private markets”, the report said.
Europe’s stock markets have lagged behind Wall Street’s…
