PwC asked leaders of European private businesses to tell us how relevant key technologies are for their business and whether they are already using them. The most popular technology: Internet of things (IoT), by a wide margin. That corresponds to how European private businesses see digitalisation.  Robotics followed, with Denmark reporting the strongest levels of usage (50%).

Global IPO activity continues to slow despite unicorns coming to market Technology, health care and industrials were the most active sectors in H1 2019 Mega IPOs and robust IPO pipelines across all regions will bolster future activity Praha, 9 July 2019 – The trend of unicorn IPOs coming to market and pushing their proceeds to historic levels continued in Q2 2019 despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and trade tensions, resulting in 507 IPOs in H1 2019, raising total proceeds of US$71.9b. While deal numbers were down 28% from H1 2018, first-day returns on the main markets were up 15.4% on average and post-IPO performance increased 28.4%. Technology, health care and industrials saw the largest share of IPOs in H1 2019, together accounting for 266 IPOs (52% of global IPOs by deal numbers) and raising US$47.8b altogether (66% of global proceeds). By proceeds, technology was the strongest sector with US$29.3b raised (41% of global proceeds). These and other findings were published today in the EY quarterly report, Global IPO trends: Q2 2019.