Catenaa, Tuesday, February 25, 2025– European block trades are off to their strongest start for the year since 2021, with about $ 8.6 billion in transactions so far in 2025, data compiled by Bloomberg on Tuesday said.
A flurry of deals for chunks of European companies has seen about $ 8.6 billion in transactions since the beginning of the year, an increase of more than 70% from the same period in 2024.
Bank of America(BofA) said momentum is likely to continue on the back of record-breaking stock prices.
The jump-start in block trading activity comes as Europe’s benchmark stock index has its best start to the year since 2019, outpacing its US counterparts.
The correlation between market sentiment and block trade activity is typically clearer than with IPOs, Jerome Renard, Head of Equity Capital Markets for the European Union at BofA told Bloomberg.
“In this improving environment for European markets, accelerated placements — the segment most tied to secondary market performance — will continue at a solid pace,” Renard said.
So far in the year, Pfizer Inc. sold a $3.2 billion stake in Haleon Plc while Reinet Investments SCA exited a $ 1.5 billion investment in British American Tobacco Plc. Siemens AG upsized a deal to sell $1.5 billion worth of Siemens Healthineers AG shares.
The Stoxx 600 hit a new high earlier in February, posting more than 9% gains.
The buoyancy has seen weekly flows into regional funds surging to the highest since February 2022, according to BofA, citing EPFR Global Data.
Meanwhile, the region’s IPO market has had an uneven start to 2025, with some entrants experiencing rocky debuts.
“While investors are eager to deploy capital and analyze new transactions, some prefer to stay on the sidelines for a period, looking at how the IPO actually unfolds,” Renard said. “All in all, the investor base remains selective with some still in a wait-and-see mode.”
