NEWSLETTER of December 5, 2025

The following content has been added at finexpert:

Quirin
DEUTSCHLAND IM FOKUS: FINANZIERUNGSMONITOR KAPITALMARKT 2025 AUSGABE 04
Our latest “Capital Market Financing Monitor #04 – H1 2025” provides valuable insights into the most recent developments on the German equity market. In the first half of 2025, a total number of 19 capital increases were completed by listed companies in Germany. While the overall number of transactions slightly declined compared to the previous year, backstop-secured capital increases continued to dominate the market. This sustained high share of backstop structures highlights the ongoing relevance of anchor investors in ensuring transaction security and maintaining market confidence in an environment still shaped by volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty. >more

KfW Research
WIE VIEL GELD NIMMT EIN UNTERNEHMEN IM MITTELSTAND FÜR SEINE INVESTITIONEN IN DIE HAND?
Last year, an investing SME implemented around three individual projects. In total, companies carried out around 4.9 million investment projects in 2024. As a rule, SME investments were of a manageable size, as evidenced by a recent special evaluation of the KfW SME Panel 2025. Small and medium-sized enterprises spent an average of EUR 62,000 on investments. Only around 1 percent of investors undertook large-volume projects averaging EUR 1 million. >more

KPMG
Q3’25 VENTURE PULSE REPORT EUROPE
VC investment in Europe remained steady in Q3’25, totaling $17.4 billion, up from $15.2 billion in Q2, though overall deal volume continued to lag. The quarter was defined by a handful of mega-deals in the AI sector, including Mistral AI in France ($1.5 billion) and Nscale in the UK ($1.5 billion), which together accounted for a substantial share of regional activity. Beyond AI, Europe also saw several sizable — though more modest — transactions across fintech and deep tech. These included Rapyd Financial in the UK ($500 million), crypto and cloud Infrastructure firm PS Miner in the UK ($350 million), and Finland-based IQM ($320 million), a quantum computing company. Overall, while deal flow remained muted, the resilience of large-ticket financings in AI, fintech, and quantum computing underscores Europe’s growing strength in next-generation technologies, even as investors remain selective in deploying capital. >more

IfM Bonn
UNTERNEHMENSNACHFOLGEN IN DEUTSCHLAND 2026 BIS 2030
According to estimates by IfM Bonn, a total of around 186,000 companies will face succession issues in the next five years because their owners will be stepping down from management due to age, illness, or death. Despite the increasing age of entrepreneurs, this is around 800 companies fewer per year than in the previous IfM Bonn estimate for 2022 to 2026. The reason for the stagnation in transfers despite an increasing number of people willing to transfer ownership is the poorer earnings situation that many companies have faced in recent years. This means that, from the perspective of potential successors, a takeover is less likely to be worthwhile. Companies in the business services sector with annual revenues of less than €500,000 are particularly affected by this development. >more

JOINING FORCES: WHY BANKS SYNDICATE CREDIT
Steven Ongena, Alex Osberghaus, and Glenn Schepens
2025
Banks can grant loans to firms bilaterally or in syndicates. We study this choice by combining bilateral loan data with syndicated loan data. We show that loan size alone does not adequately explain syndication. Instead, banks’ ability to manage risks and firm riskiness drive the choice to syndicate. Banks are more likely to syndicate loans if their risk-bearing capacity is low and if screening and monitoring come at a high cost. Syndicated loans are more expensive and more sensitive to loan risk than bilateral loans. Our findings contradict the hypothesis that reputable borrowers graduate to the syndicated loan market. >more

ARE THERE TOO FEW PUBLICLY LISTED FIRMS IN THE US?
Craig Doidge, George Andrew Karolyi, Kris Shen, and René M. Stulz
2025
Doidge, Karolyi, and Stulz (2017) show that from 1999 to 2012 the US develops a listing gap relative to other countries, meaning that it has abnormally few publicly listed firms. In this paper, we update their evidence to 2023 and find that the listing gap increases, but at a low rate. By 2023, the US has about half as many listed firms per capita as other developed countries. We discuss some of the important questions raised by the existence and increase of the listing gap to which we hope researchers will find answers. >more