Europe's largest listing since 2022 and criticism of Nasdaq: What's important about the IPO by October 12

Europe saw its largest IPO since 2022: security company Verisure floated its securities and they jumped 21% in early trading. Leading laundry equipment maker Alliance Laundry successfully debuted in New York after an $826 million offering. Nasdaq has recently become a favorite platform for IPOs of "penny stocks" and, despite criticism, continues to approve such listings, according to The Wall Street Journal. The main IPO market news for October 12 - in our selection.

- British bank Shawbrook is preparing an IPO on the London Stock Exchange that could raise about 400 million pounds ($539 million), Bloomberg sources say. The bank expects a valuation in the neighborhood of 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion), they said. Shawbrook shares have traded in London before - from 2015 to 2017, when a consortium of investors led by BC Partners and Pollen Street bought the bank, valuing it at 868 million pounds (about $1.1 billion at the exchange rate at the time of the deal).

- Permira and Blackstone funds have chosen investment banks to organize the IPO of German automotive marketplace Mobile.de, which is valued at €10 billion, the Financial Times reported. According to its sources, the company could go public in Frankfurt in mid-2026. Mobile.de is Germany's largest car trading platform with about 40,000 dealer customers. Its listing could be one of the largest in Europe in recent years, the FT noted.

- Shares of Alliance Laundry, a global leader in the self-service laundry equipment market, rose 13% on the first day of trading after listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO, which was up 10% and at the top end of its price range, saw the company and its investor BDT & MSD Partners sell $826.3 million worth of shares. The IPO after the increased offering closed oversubscribed by more than 11 times, with the 10 largest institutional investors buying more than 55% of the shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The industrial sector has seen an increase in IPO volume, while the number of U.S. manufacturing companies that have gone public in recent years remains small - the U.S. listing market is dominated by fintech companies, including cryptocurrency players, the agency notes.

- Quotes of Phoenix Education Partners, the owner of the University of Phoenix, jumped by 19% on the first day of trading after the IPO in the United States. The company placed $136 million worth of shares on the New York Stock Exchange at a price corresponding to the middle of the announced price range. The IPO was oversubscribed 10 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The University of Phoenix was founded in 1976 and specializes in educating working adults.

- Shares in security company Verisure, which operates in Europe and Latin America, jumped 21% after the largest IPO in Europe since 2022. The company floated €3.2 billion worth of shares on the Stockholm stock exchange at a price above its originally announced range. Verisure chief executive Austin Lally said on the day of the stock exchange debut that the listing was aimed at long-term results rather than a sharp rise in the share price on day one.

- Shares in medical prosthetics maker Ottobock rose 4.7% in the debut trading session in Frankfurt after the largest IPO in Germany since March 2024. The company and the Nader family, which owns it, sold €702 million worth of securities, placing them at the top end of their stated range. Ottobock had originally planned to go public in 2022, but postponed its IPO preparations due to market volatility after the start of the full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

- The IPO of non-banking credit institution Tata Capital for $1.7 billion, becoming India's largest in 2025, was fully subscribed on the last day of applications, Bloomberg reports citing exchange data. The total number of applications almost doubled the volume of shares being offered, with the quota for institutional investors being oversubscribed by 3.4 times. The active investor interest bodes well for the company's debut on the stock exchange on October 13, the agency said. Tata Capital is part of one of India's largest holding companies Tata Group. A float at the upper end of its stated range of 310 to 326 rupees per paper ($3.5-3.7) would make Tata Capital the fourth largest "shadow lender" in India by market value after Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and Jio Financial Services, Bloomberg added.

- IPOs in India could raise as much as $20 billion in 2026, Citigroup believes. "India, along with Hong Kong, is likely to be the world's most active equity capital market (ECM) next year," said Harish Raman, head of equity capital markets for Asia Pacific at Citi. IPOs in the country have already raised $12 billion in 2025, and that amount is expected to increase by another $5 billion in October - in part due to offerings by Tata Capital and India's LG Electronics, whose shares will begin trading next week, Bloomberg notes.

- The Nasdaq exchange, where shares of Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft are listed, has recently become a favorite platform for IPOs of "penny stocks" (penny stocks) - securities of tiny foreign companies with dubious financial prospects, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to the newspaper's calculations, the number of listings of such microenterprises has grown dramatically over the past two years. These stocks often attract retail investors until the stock prices collapse. Some have seen short-term spikes amid news of name changes, ties to cryptocurrencies or artificial intelligence, the WSJ writes. After criticism from investors and lawmakers who called these IPOs a hotbed of fraud and manipulation, Nasdaq promised to clean up its act and filed a request with the SEC to tighten listing requirements. The WSJ says the exchange is still approving offerings that don't meet the criteria it proposes to impose.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor