By Daisy Ku
LONDON (Reuters UK) - Investors have already placed enough orders to back Delta Lloyd's 1.2 billion euro (1.1 billion pound) initial public offering (IPO) with about a week to spare, pointing to decent demand for Western Europe's biggest flotation this year.
A spokeswoman for Delta Lloyd, the Dutch unit of Aviva, confirmed on Tuesday that bookbuilding for the offering was fully covered.
The deal is underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and RBS.
People familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier on Tuesday Delta Lloyd's offering, which began bookbuilding on October 19 and will close on November 2, had been covered since Friday.
For all of Europe, the largest deal this year is top Polish utility PGE's impending $2.2 billion offering.
PGE, which also had its book covered within the first week of bookbuilding, will price its IPO late on Tuesday.
With two major deals closing, Europe's IPO volume is set to jump to $4.8 billion, from $801 million, according to Thomson Reuters data, bringing Europe's share in global IPO volume to 6.8 percent, from 1.8 percent.
Bankers are hoping Delta Lloyd and PGE will re-open the IPO market in Europe, which has been stuck in the doldrums -- U.S. IPOs have raised $25 billion while Asia registered $38 billion worth of listings excluding Japan, according to Thomson Reuters data.
PIPELINE
Europe has seen only 32 IPOs so far this year, including Delta LLoyd and PGE. But there are many deals in the queue.
Private equity-backed travel reservations giant Amadeus, for example, has hired Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley for a potential 2 billion euro (1.8 billion pound) offering next year.
Unity Media, Germany's No. 2 cable operator, is preparing to raise some 1 billion euros towards the end of this year.
Blackstone is also preparing to float Merlin Entertainments, the second biggest theme park operator after Disney, in early 2010, sources have said.
But not all of the IPO candidates will necessarily launch their deals.
"They are not like rights issues -- buyers don't have to buy and sellers don't have to sell," said one London-based banker.
An RBS poll of investors showed 15 percent expect the IPO market to re-open in the fourth quarter, while more than half predict it will kick into life in the first half of 2010.
(Additional reporting by Dajaja Ottenhof in Amsterdam; editing by John Stonestreet and Simon Jessop)
