EMEA Equity House: Goldman Sachs
Checkmate
It has been more than 15 years since another bank dominated EMEA ECM to the extent Goldman Sachs did in 2025. For all the challenges in the market and the ups and downs of products, sectors and nations, Goldman Sachs was front and centre on the most important deals and is IFR’s EMEA Equity House of the Year.
Goldman Sachs’ 14% market share in EMEA equities in the IFR Awards period is the highest any bank has achieved in the region since 2009 when JP Morgan (and UBS) claimed outsized shares in bank recapitalisations. In 2025 Goldman had outsized shares across the market, but especially in the most active products: IPOs and ABBs.
Goldman asserted its dominance in one week in February and did not look back. On February 25, it was sole books on a selldown in Novartis for the Sandoz family. The SFr2.6bn (US$2.91bn) trade was won through an auction and as such was not entirely smooth, with shares dropping below issue the next day.
The day before Goldman was sole books on Paulson’s selldown in Piraeus Financial Holdings, followed by a sponsor sale in Belgian chemicals business Azelis the same night as Novartis. And on February 26 it led a surprise €3bn ABB with JP Morgan in carmaker Ferrari for the Agnelli family. Across three nights that amounted to US$4.6bn of league table credit, while the Ferrari sale alone paid €6.5m in fees.
Goldman Sachs wasn't among the three most active banks in June, July or August, but in some ways that reflected the year – picking the right times and not forcing deals through. On one night in June it led four ABBs as sole books, the Irish state's exit from AIB Group and three institutional blocks; and ran the US$1.51bn-equivalent ABB in July in South Africa’s Pepkor that represented more than 100 days' trading volume and released an overhang. All of which kept Laura Vincent busy as head of equity syndicate.
A revival of IPOs in 2025 had been anticipated but struggled to get moving in EMEA. Of course, US president Donald Trump’s sabre-rattling over tariffs was partially to blame, but more significant was the loss of planned IPOs to acquisitions, with dual-track routes often bypassing the ECM station.
Goldman led the IPOs of luxury goods logistics company Ferrari Group in February and low-cost airline Flynas in Saudi Arabia in June, but it was the post-summer period when the IPO market finally gained some momentum, and the US bank led all the most significant deals.
It was the only global coordinator on all five of the largest IPOs in that all-important period – SMG Swiss Marketplace Group, Verisure, Ottobock, Noba Bank and Shawbrook Group – representing a spread of geographies and sectors; and would also have led the expected multibillion IPOs of TenneT Germany and Stada in that period had they not agreed to be acquired shortly before launch.
“IPOs require the most judgment; looking over the past year that has been more so than usual,” said Richard Cormack, head of EMEA ECM. “Not all have priced and some have fallen over later. We priced every deal we launched.”
They all traded up on debut too with the exception of Flynas, which has the caveat of missiles being fired between Israel and Iran around that time.
The run included Verisure's listing in Stockholm, which at €3.59bn is the largest sponsor-backed IPO and IFR’s EMEA IPO of the year, as well as the best performing float in Noba Bank, up around 48% at the end of the awards period and still rising.
Verisure provided a bellwether for other large leveraged listings in the 2026 pipeline, and Goldman was the only global coordinator across the IPO, €1.25bn term loan B and €1bn PIK note that made up the full financing package.
Digital bank Shawbrook was much smaller but vital for rebuilding the UK market. At £400m, it was the largest London IPO in more than four years and largest UK bank IPO in more than 10. Around 80 investors were met pre-launch, with 550 meetings in premarketing and 185 accounts involved in the roadshow, and more than a third of the book going to US money. UK bankers away from the deal repeatedly mentioned the positive impact that deal has had on discussions around IPOs in London.