Liquidity events in North America - IPOs, mergers and other causes of wealth - rose last year in value terms, data provided to this news service has shown.

Mergers, business acquisitions, share flotations and other wealth-creating events increased last year to $134.841 billion from $105.846 billion a year before, with North American-focused liquidity events chalking up higher values this year, while European ones declined, new figures show.

Figures from data and analysis firm Wealthmonitor showed liquidity events on a broadly upward tack last year – positive news for the world’s private bankers and other advisors to high net worth individuals. 

In North America, there were $34.044 billion of all liquidity events in North America last year, against $19.569 billion a year earlier, but down from $34.554 billion in 2015.

Number crunchers at the firm found that in Europe, there were a total of 261 liquidity events last year, up from 182 in 2016 and up from 231 in 2015. However, in value terms, 2015 yielded the largest figure for total value of activity, at $154.963 billion. Among shareholders whose main address is in Europe, Wealthmonitor was able to break down the figures on initial public offerings, showing that for such persons in Europe, 175 beneficiaries of such floats produced an average wealth per head of $7.13 million. Of that number, 88 per cent were male, higher than in the previous year, when 81.82 per cent of European IPO beneficiaries were male.

In 2016, there were more IPO beneficiaries in Europe, earning an average of $7.6 million from IPOs, highlighting the higher total value created - $1.756 billion in Europe. There were 41 IPO deals in the European category last year, up from 40 the year before but down from 53 in 2015.

Explaining its methodology, Wealthmonitor said the new wealth it tracks from M&A comes from stake sales only.

While the pace of M&A and initial public offering activity can ebb and flow, these remain important events for wealth managers to track. A recent headline-grabbing IPO concerned the case of streaming music channel business Spotify, making its CEO someone worth (at the time of the event) worth an estimated $2.4 billion.  Across the globe, data from EY recently showed that proceeds from IPOs in Europe and the US grew in Q1 from a year earlier although Asia saw a decline. The EY report showed that global IPO markets raised $42.8 billion in Q1, up 28 .per cent from a year ago, although the volume of offerings, at 287, fell 27 per cent, showing that average values created by IPOs rose.