Morphosys (Martinsried) and MWG Biotech (Ebersberg), have filed initial public offerings (IPOs) with the Neuer Markt (Frankfurt), three years after Germany's first biotechnology company, Qiagen (Hilden), went public on Nasdaq. As well as an end to the IPO drought in Germany, the filings signal strong confidence in the Neuert Markt. Having outperformed many exchanges last year, the exchange is proving a desirable alternative to Nasdaq, and there is growing enthusiasm for the Neuer Markt as the place for high-technology companies to go public in Europe. However, with the Neuer Markt relatively unaccustomed to the risky world of biotechnology, the anticipated rush for such stocks is expected to be short-lived.
Morphosys, a biotechnology company that sells access to its human combinatorial antibody library, originally planned to go public in September 1998, but postponed its listing in light of the global financial troubles at that time. An IPO of about DM52.24 million (US$30 million) is now scheduled for March 9. And MWG Biotech, which offers nonradioactive DNA sequencing, has filed for May 10, but financial details are currently unavailable. "The window for IPOs is opening," says Dirk Siewert, executive corporate finance, investment banking, Deutsche Bank AG (Frankfurt), which is coordinating the Morphosys IPO.
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