European mid-sized stocks trading at cheap valuation levels is discouraging a number of more richly valued private companies from making the jump and listing on exchanges, investors say.
After years of underperformance, mid-caps in Europe trade at the lowest price-to-earnings levels relative to big caps since the Great Financial Crisis. At these depressed valuation levels, smaller firms weighing initial public offerings are reluctant to come to the market at levels acceptable for investors, says Sebastien Ribeiro, a fund manager at Amiral Gestion, in Paris.
