LONDON - Despite the banking crisis in Cyprus, Europe’s capital markets are still open for business.
On Friday, the British insurance firm Esure raised £604 million, or $917 million, in one of the largest initial public offerings so far this year in Europe. The European banks, Santander and KBC, also pocketed a combined $1.5 billion through a 21 percent share sale in Bank Zachodni, a Polish subsidiary.
The successful offerings come despite growing uncertainty about how the stalemate in Cyprus will affect Europe’s sluggish recovery from its debt crisis.
The Continent’s policy makers are still trying to hammer out a deal that will force the small European country to contribute 5.8 billion euros, or $7.6 billion, toward a 10 billion euro bailout package for Cypriot banks.
Some analysts have warned that the resurgent euro zone crisis could knock investors’ appetite for new listings. Before Cyprus flared up, money raised from new European I.P.O.’s in the first quarter of the year was expected to jump by almost 70 percent compared with the same period in 2012, according to statistics from the accounting firm Ernst & Young.
“Conditions have improved significantly for the region,†said Maria Pinelli, the global strategic growth markets leader at Ernst & Young’s. “However, the euro zone’s political and economic difficulties are casting a shadow across the capital markets.â€
The British insurer Esure shrugged off the dark clouds on Friday after the firm secured its listing close to the top of its expected price range. Trading in Esure, which provides home and car insurance across Britain, started on Friday, and gave the British company a market capitalization of around £1.2 billion.
It is the latest firm to tap London’s capital markets. On Wednesday, the British property company Countrywide raised £200 million from its I.P.O., while the insurance firm Direct Line, which is part owned by the nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland, raised £787 million from the capital markets in October.
In Poland, Santander of Spain and KBC of Belgium also raised a combined $1.5 billion from selling shares in their Polish unit Bank Zachodni, though the firms were forced to price the sale below Bank Zachodni’s closing price on Thursday.
Despite uncertainty caused by Europe’s financial difficulties, some global markets remain strong, as investors bet on growing demand from consumers in emerging economies. Singapore and Japan accounted for almost two-thirds of the money raised from new offerings in the first quarter of the year, remain strong
A consortium led by the European private equity firm CVC Capital Partners took advantage of this sentiment on Friday by raising $1.3 billion from a share sale in Indonesia’s largest department store operator, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
CVC and its partners â€" a unit of the Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation - will retain majority control of the Indonesian retailer Matahari, and secured backing from several global investors, including BlackRock and the asset management units of Goldman Sachs.
Neil Gough contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
