PARIS, Jan 8: Initial public offerings on European exchanges raised a record 66 billion euros ($86 billion) last year, nearly two times the amount raised on US markets, a study by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed on Monday.

There were 651 initial offerings in Europe last year against 224 in the United States, where 36.3 billion euros were raised, according to the report.

In China 137 initial offerings were worth 47.4 billion euros.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, a total of 25.7 billion euros was raised in Europe, including 10.3 billion in London, 7.8 billion on markets administered by Euronext and 3 billion on the Frankfurt exchange, Deutsche Bourse.

“While investor demand is always difficult to predict ... we can expect to see a flourishing IPO market in 2007 provided the markets are not disrupted by an event of global significance,” said Thierry Caron, a PricewaterhouseCoopers market specialist.

The study found that international companies preferred London to New York, as 91 foreign firms listed in London compared with 22 international companies that opted for Wall Street.

—AFP