Global IPO activity slumps in 2025 as tariffs, volatility weigh
According to LSEG data, as of June 17, global IPO volume has declined about 9.3% year-on-year to $44.3 billion, the lowest level in nine years.
U.S. IPO volumes dropped 12% to $12.3 billion, while Europe saw a sharper 64% decline to $5.8 billion. In contrast, Asia-Pacific IPO volumes have risen 28% to $16.8 billion so far this year.
President Donald Trump's tariffs, which included a 10% blanket levy plus targeted duties on U.S. trading partners, re-ignited tensions in April. Despite his subsequent pause and negotiations on trade and tariffs, businesses globally are uncertain about demand and investment.
"It's not prudent for companies to go public right now. The volatility in the market is unprecedented," said Isabelle Freidheim, founder and managing partner at Athena Capital.
"There's real risk for tech companies that are still figuring out profitability. If the stock drops after the IPO, it's very hard to recover, especially for companies with less steady cash flow or that aren't as mature."
Despite the broader slowdown, China and Japan have seen a sharp pickup in listings, driven by regulatory easing and improved sentiment. A standout was Chinese battery giant CATL, which raised $4.6 billion in the world's largest IPO so far this year, boosted by renewed market momentum following the U.S. tariff truce.
At the same time, some analysts are cautiously optimistic about a second-half recovery. U.S. IPO interest is showing signs of a rebound, led by fintech firm Chime, which surged on its debut. High-profile names such as Klarna, Gemini and Cerebras are slated to list later this year.
"With U.S., European defence contractors and Indian consumer names also filing, late-2025 could deliver a textbook 'trickle-then-torrent' if volatility behaves," said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors.
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Telegraph
2 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Britain to help restart civilian flights into Ukraine after ceasefire
Britain will help restart international air travel into Ukraine after a peace deal is agreed to boost the country's economy and rebuild its independence. The Coalition of the Willing, a group of more than 30 nations supportive of Ukraine, wants to establish 'normal' flying conditions in the event of a ceasefire. Royal Air Force fighter jets are due to join planes from other European nations in policing the skies to make sure that Russia does not launch a second full-scale invasion. But a secondary aim will be to once again reinstate international travel in and out of Ukrainian cities. A similar effort will be made to reopen Ukraine's ports by accelerating ongoing efforts to clear the Black Sea of mines. The ambitions show an additional feature of the West's hopes of rebuilding Ukraine into not just a secure and strong nation after the fighting ends, but an economically thriving one. There would also be upsides for European travellers, who for more than three years have experienced longer journeys as planes divert around the Ukrainian border. In the sky over Europe, from Portugal to Ukraine, the flight radar shows a striking contrast. Busy air routes full of passenger planes gradually give way to an empty horizon. — (@ukraine_ua) August 14, 2025 Planning for how Europe can do more to protect Ukraine's independence if there is a deal with Russia has been going on intensively for months. Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, have been taking the lead on the drive, with a joint headquarters being set up in Paris. The coalition has put an emphasis that nations reluctant to take part in peace-keeping efforts should not hold back others more ready to act. The coalition will also consider how to ensure Russia will not restock its military after a ceasefire is declared, which could enable a second full-scale invasion in the future. The Prime Minister committed to the consideration of putting British 'boots on the ground and planes in the air', though the idea of a mass UK deployment to man any new border has faded. Instead, hundreds of British military trainers and engineers will be sent into Ukraine to help rebuild its armed forces. The first deployments are expected to take place within a week of a ceasefire, with the UK presence ramping up in the weeks after that. Allies would fly planes over Ukraine to patrol the skies and deter a second Russian invasion, under the plans. The UK is willing to provide Eurofighter Typhoons and F-35s. This would also allow commercial air travel to resume. In July, the UK Government said planes from the coalition would provide 'air policing, reassuring the Ukrainian population and establishing the conditions for normal international air travel to re-commence'. Alongside this will be an effort to create 'safer seas' around Ukraine. The Black Sea Task Force, which was set up by Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, would be bolstered with specialist staff to more quickly clear mines in the water. The UK Government said this drive would 'ensure safe and secure maritime access for all vessels transiting to and from Ukraine ports'. The resumption of more normal air travel and port activity would provide a boost to the Ukrainian economy at a time when Kyiv wants to rebuild its military. Other companies and travellers in Europe could benefit too. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted in its 2025 annual report: 'The ongoing war in Ukraine also has affected air transport in various ways. 'Twenty per cent of European airspace has been closed and Russian airspace overflight rights withdrawn for most Western airlines, requiring the re-routing of long-haul flights to Asia.' How quickly private airline companies would be willing to fly once again both over and into Ukraine, even with the coalition patrols, remains to be seen.
The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Zelenskyy faces daunting trip to the White House – but this time he will not be alone
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make his second visit to the White House on Monday with the daunting task of reversing the damage done to Ukraine's security prospects by Friday's Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Zelenskyy will not, however, be alone as he was on his first trip to the White House in February when he was ambushed and humiliated by Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, who sought to bully him into capitulation to Moscow's demands. This time the Ukrainian leader comes to Washington flanked by a dream team of European leaders, including Britain's Keir Starmer, Germany's Friedrich Merz and France's Emmanuel Macron, who combine economic and military clout with proven rapport with Trump. Their mission will be to try to use their individual and combined influence to coax the president out of the pro-Russian positions he adopted after just a couple of hours under Putin's sway in the sub-Arctic on Friday. To do that, they will have to project a more convincing sense of resolve and common purpose than they have managed hitherto, argued Ben Rhodes, a former adviser to Barack Obama. 'My advice would be to not capitulate to Trump,' Rhodes said. 'He has grown all too accustomed to people he perceives as weaker bending to his will, which is something that Putin does not do … Zelenskyy cannot be expected to do this alone, as that's what got him into that last mess in the Oval Office. Zelenskyy needs Europe. And the Europeans need to show a strength to stand up to Trump which they have not really shown yet.' Macron and Merz will accompany Zelenskyy on Monday as embodiments of the two pillars of Europe, the French-German axis that is at the core of the EU. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, will be a reminder of Europe's combined importance as an economic juggernaut. Trump struck a EU-US trade deal with her just three weeks ago in Scotland, and hailed the relationship as 'the biggest trading partnership in the world'. Brett Bruen, a former White House director of global engagement, said the Europeans should focus on economics and use the White House meeting 'as a chance to remind Trump how small Russia's economy is vis-a-vis the EU and the UK and other western partners.' The principal role in Team Zelenskyy of Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, will be as a useful bridge: a European far-rightwinger who Trump counts as a friend but who also supports Ukrainian sovereignty. The Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, represents an even smaller European state but he is on the team because he managed to establish an unexpectedly warm relationship with Trump. The Finn cultivated his access to the president by hastily polishing up his rusty golfing skills for an impromptu trip to Florida in March for a round with Trump, on the recommendation of the Republican senator Lindsey Graham. Stubb used the occasion to offer the perspective of Russia's closest European neighbour, urging Trump not to trust Vladimir Putin. Starmer combines national clout and personal rapport in some measure. Trump has gone out of his way to emphasise their good relations, despite Starmer's 'liberal' outlook, and the president arguably has an incentive not to sour relations ahead of a state visit to the UK next month, an extravaganza in which Trump sets high store. Mark Rutte also brings the influence of high office, as Nato secretary general, with a proven track record of corralling Trump with honeyed words, at one point appointing him the 'daddy' among world leaders, helping avoid any disastrous outbursts at the Nato summit in June. 'A lot of people have learned the lessons of Trump, in terms of how you handle him,' said Kim Darroch, who was the UK ambassador to Washington in Trump's first term. 'There will be a lot of flattery. It's tiresome but it's necessary: it gets you to first base. You tell him how well he's doing, how glad everyone is that he is leading the west to find a solution to the war. But then you get onto the substance.' The fact that all these leaders have cleared their diaries to fly to Washington at short notice is a measure of how alarmed they were by Friday's Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage. The Russian president, wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes in the wake of his unprovoked full invasion of Ukraine, was feted with a red carpet and a personal round of applause from Trump, who allowed him to speak first after the truncated abortive meeting and abruptly dropped his previous insistence on a ceasefire. Instead, the US president uncritically accepted Putin's preference to move straight to a comprehensive peace deal, putting the onus on Ukraine to make territorial concessions. One diplomatic observer likened the prospect of Monday's White House showdown in the shadow of Alaska to a football team coming out for a second half trailing 0-3 but with a raft of super-substitutes on the field. The first challenge will be staying together and sticking to the same talking points. 'Put up a united front and speak from one set of points,' advised Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to Nato. 'The goal is to get Trump to agree and side with them. But the message must be that their position is real, won't change, and if Trump doesn't agree they will pursue their path on their own.' 'Trump won't have the patience to listen to the same pitch a dozen times,' Darroch said. 'So for the initial round they probably need to select a couple of European speakers alongside Zelenskyy: perhaps Rutte as secretary general of Nato and Macron as the senior European national leader. 'My advice to Starmer would be to wait and see how the conversation goes,' Darroch added. 'If it goes badly off-track, or gets a bit spiky, he can intervene to pull it back on course, or calm it down, or just try to build some bridges. Because the risk is that if Trump thinks that the whole exercise is basically about telling him he's got it wrong, he could react badly or just close the discussion down.' On the way into the White House, Zelenskyy and his European backers can steel themselves with knowledge that not all is lost. The worst fear was that Trump would strike a deal with Putin in Alaska which would be presented as a fait accompli to Kyiv. That did not happen. Furthermore, they have potential allies inside the Trump administration. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, is a traditional Republican whose instincts towards Russia are hawkish, although he has a record of going along with the flow of the president's impulses. On Sunday, Rubio gave the arriving delegation some hope, insisting to NBC that a ceasefire is 'not off the table' and confirming that the US is interested in contributing to western security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, acknowledging 'it's one of their fundamental demands is that if this war were to end, they have to make sure this never happens again'. The arrival of so many European luminaries in Washington is a sign of panic, in part, but also of united resolve. Arguably the only way the delegation could be strengthened would be with the inclusion of a Norwegian. Last week, Trump is reported to have cold-called the Norwegian foreign minister (and former Nato secretary general) Jens Stoltenberg, catching him by surprise on his mobile while he was out on the street. The president is said to have pressed Stoltenberg on his obsession with winning a Nobel peace prize, an award decided by a Norwegian parliamentary-appointed committee. One of the cards Trump's visitors will have in their hands on Monday is a reminder that cosying up to Putin is unlikely to get him the Nobel he craves. 'Second-term Trump has his eye on his place in the history books,' Darroch said. 'This is a point which needs to be put across delicately, but history will be kind to him if he delivers a fair peace in Ukraine; less so if he presses for a capitulation.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
The 'king of American coins' found after 70 years
Where James A. Stack Sr. acquired it is a mystery that may never be solved - but for more than 70 years, one of the rarest coins in American history sat quietly in his family's collection. Stack, a prominent New York banker and one of the most discerning coin collectors of the 20th century, began building his collection in the late 1930s with a bold goal: to assemble the most complete and highest-quality cabinet of U.S. coins possible. He pored over landmark sales, forged relationships with top dealers, and handpicked pieces not just for rarity, but for their pristine condition and impeccable provenance. By the time of his death in 1951, Stack's holdings spanned everything from early American copper to spectacular gold issues, along with rarities in U.S. paper money, ancient coins, and world currency. His collection included some of the greatest trophies in American numismatics - an 1802 half dime, an 1894-S dime, an 1838-O half dollar, the 1815 half eagle, and the finest known 1870-S silver dollar. Even the notorious 1933 double eagle once sat in his albums before being surrendered to the Secret Service, leaving behind only his wry note: 'Secret Service has mine.' One of his most elusive prizes - an 1804 silver dollar known as the 'King of American Coins' - has remained hidden since the 1940s. Just 16 examples are known to exist, and this one is considered the finest of the so-called 'Class III' type in private hands. It will be seen publicly for the first time next week at the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money in Oklahoma City before going under the hammer on December 9, where it's expected to fetch up to $5 million. John Kraljevich, numismatic historian with Stack's Bowers Galleries, which is handling the sale told Daily Mail: 'It certainly has the upshot of making some people who thought they knew everything about everything, or at least everything about this coin, second guess. 'There's always another collection sitting in grandpa's closet. That's why we do what we do - the joy of discovery and the hunt for hidden treasure.' Despite its date, no silver dollars were actually struck in 1804. 'None of the silver dollars made in 1804 were actually dated 1804,' Kraljevich explains. 'In 1834 they wanted diplomatic gifts for heads of state, so they made new dies and put 1804 on them.' Those first pieces went to rulers such as the King of Siam and the Sultan of Muscat - instantly making them rarities. Later, in the late 1860s and early 1870s, Mint employees struck a few more off the books for collectors. This newly surfaced piece is one of those so-called 'Class III' examples. 'It's high grade, it's beautiful, and it's the only one among all the Class Threes in private hands with that kind of caliber,' Kraljevich says. 'Among the Class Threes, this is far and away the best one any collector will have a chance to bid on,' he added. The 'King of American Coins' nickname dates back to 1941. 'That was marketing talk from another numismatic auctioneer… a Lithuanian immigrant named B. Max Mehl, sort of the PT Barnum of the coin industry,' Kraljevich says. 'He spent hundreds of thousands of Depression-era dollars on marketing, got everyone looking for rare coins in their change, and really helped coin collecting blossom.' Where Stack Sr. acquired the coin remains a mystery. 'We have no backstory,' says Kraljevich. 'The collector bought this between the late 1930s and 1951 in New York… where it was sourced before that is anybody's guess.' Kraljevich believes the coin's pristine state and fresh-to-market appeal could drive bidding sky-high. 'We're thinking probably four to five million… but anything could happen. People love new discoveries and stories of hidden treasure. You get two wealthy individuals who decide they just have to have it, and records will be set.'
