Analysts warn investment trust fundraising in 2018 could fall short on 2017 figure

IPOs failing to reach fundraise target

Lagging IPOs and secondary issuance in Q1 suggests total fundraising in 2018 for investment companies could be lower than the £3.7bn raised in 2017, according to trust analysts at Numis Securities.

Data shows more than £1.9bn in total was raised during the first three months of this year; 20% less than Q1 2017 and 43% down on Q4 2017. Within this figure, £1.4bn was raised through secondary issuance between January and March, down from the record level of £3bn in Q4 2017. In terms of IPOs alone - of which there were four - only £509m of gross proceeds was raised, or just £291m if excluding capital raised via rollovers or shares exchanged for seed assets.  Numis said: "The IPO market is challenging, and although there is still demand for secondary issues by existing funds tradi...