One of AmCham's economic development goals is to make Prague a top hub of European business. At our General Assembly in June, we gathered representatives from some key strategic assets: Petr Fabrický of the Prague Airport, Michal Pěchouček of prague.ai, Rainer Bogner of ExxonMobil's shared service center, Lenka Žlebková of Prague Congress Center, and Matěj Chytil of Prague City Hall. Each is moving from a high volume approach to a higher premium approach in their business. Each can help the other achieve their goals. Train service to airport, for instance, also boosts congress business, which boosts business travel. 

• 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.

According to the newest CBRE Shopping Centre Index study, which has been compiled for the seventh year by the CBRE company, the world leader in the field of retail services, shopping centres in the Czech Republic have been successful again. Turnover in Czech regional shopping centres grew for the fifth consecutive year. Comparing the year 2017 with the previous year, turnover grew 4.2%. Rents grew only minimally. The vacancy rate is stable. The “Rent-to-sales ratio” reached a historical minimum and the average basket achieved its historical maximum. This once again proves that Czech retail is doing well.

• 59% of companies worldwide plan deals in the next year fueled by portfolio reshaping
• Strong M&A intentions accelerated rather than stalled by uncertainty
• Despite Brexit uncertainty, UK is top investment destination for the first time in 10 years

Despite mounting geopolitical complexities, the appetite for global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is at a 10-year high, according to the 20th edition of the EY Global Capital Confidence Barometer (CCB), a biannual survey of more than 2,900 senior executives across 47 countries. Companies continue to use acquisitions to build the foundations for future growth amid rising uncertainty. Almost six in ten (59%) global companies are now planning to acquire in the coming year — up from 52% 12 months ago.