AMF Working group report on IPO practices

Amundsen Investment Management has been actively involved with the French IPO Forum, an industry practitioner group, on a report commissioned by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) – France on IPO practices in France and the implementation of the EU Listing Act into local regulations.

The report was written after a wide consultation with professionals active in IPO processes in France including bankers, lawyers, and investors (both local and international), to formulate suggestions on the evolution of the IPO process in France. The report contains recommendations on prospectus format, transaction timeline, research preparation, pricing and deal sizing, as well as retail investor engagement. In particular, investors we talked to were preoccupied with having sufficient information for fundamental work early enough in the process.

Thank you to the participants in the French IPO Forum for a structured collaboration (in particular Sophie Javary for heading the work, and Aude Contamin, Sébastien Ribeiro and Luc Mouzon for our shared work on investor engagement), for the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) – France in entrusting this working group with this report - and importantly to our peer network and fellow investors for the meaningful discussions and thoughts provided throughout the past six months.

The outlook is encouraging for IPO activity in Europe, including in France as illustrated by the successful listing of global semiconductor company SEMCO in Paris this week. France and Europe have the human talent and the infrastructure to start world-class, innovative companies. But we still lack ambitious domestic and regional reforms to boost equity ownership and fuel more risk capital to fund our growth companies. Amundsen Investment Management has the ambition to play an active role in facilitating access to equity markets for innovative and ambitious companies. A healthy IPO market is an important indicator of a healthy and innovative economy.

Report published here: AMF IPO Working Group report