The world wide economic down turn hit home hard in Australia’s IPO’s market with a dramatic 80%fall in new listings from the previous record year.

There were 47 Initial Public Offerings announced in 2008 

  sought to raise$2.37B.This contrasts with 277 IPO’s announced in 2007 which sought to raise$11.19B.

The second half of the year crawled to a stand still with only 11 new listings announced after the 30th of June.A further 14 offerings were announced but subsequently withdrawn from the market. Despite the resources boom coming to an end,Mining and Energy floats continued to dominate the proposed new listings with over half-32 in total-of all new listings coming from these two sectors.This is still well down on last years total of 127 new floats in the mining industry. The composition of new listings in 2008 continued to be skewed to the lower end of the market.A total of 35 proposed new listings-70%-sought to raise$10M or less. The smaller IPO’s also continued to favour the second tier advisory firms.

Accounting firm Grant Thornton were the leading Accounting Advisors with 7 IPO’s to their credit.They were followed by HLB Mann Judd(5)and PKF&Stanton Partners with 4 new floats respectively.

Two out of the top 4 Accounting firms-Deloitte and KPMG-were represented as advisors 5 of the top 10 IPO’s for the year. The continued capital raisings for small mining companies assisted Perth based legal firm Steinpreis Paganin to claim top spot for the third year in a row with 11 new listings.They were followed by Hopgood Ganim(4 new floats)and DLA Phillips Fox with 3.

The following pages describe the IPO activity in Australia in 2008.Legal Advisors–Steinepreis Paganin–Top Advisor

For the third year in a row Perth based firm Steinepreis Paganin were the leading IPO legal advisors.They finished the year with 11 new listings which sought to raise$57.40M.In a lean year,those 11 new listings accounted for nearly a quarter of all the new IPO’s in 2008.

Hopgood Ganim finished second with 4 new listings seeking to raise$77.50M.

DLA Phillips Fox was third with 3 IPOs which had a combined total of$1,233.01M.

Accounting Advisors-Grant Thornton-Top Advisor In a year which saw the Top 4 Accounting Firms restricted to only the largest new listings,Grant Thornton finished with 7 floats which sought to raise$52.00M. They were followed by HLB Mann Judd with 5 and PKF&Stanton Partners with 4 new listings respectively.

The lack of new listings in 2008 reduced the available data and subsequent analysis associated with advisor activity.Consequently,Connect 4 has chosen to analyse the top 3 Accounting and Legal Advisors.2008 IPO Summary The following analysis provides an overview of IPO’s which have been announced to the market in 2008.

CONNECT 4 

 IPO activity according to the“Date of Application”in the ASX daily schedule.The

number of new listings reflects IPO’s which have applied for listing up to the 31st of December 2008.

Listings which have been withdrawn from the market are not included.

The following tables and graphs illustrate these results.

Total IPO Market

Industry Number Amount Sought-$M

Mining 26 285.30

Industrials 4 1292.26

Consumer 5 40.00

Health Care 2 15.00

Banking/Finance/Insurance 3 665.20

Telecommunications 1 4.50

Energy 6 108.50

Total 47 2369.06The TOP 10 IPO’s For The Year 2008

Company Name Industry Legal Adviser Acct Adviser Amt

Sought

1 BrisConnections Unit

Trusts

Industrials Corrs/DLA Phillips

FoxD

eloitte 1,226.01

2 Macquarie CPS Trust Banking/Fin/

Insurance

Mallesons Stephen

JaquesK

PMG 600.00

3 Ivanhoe Australia Ltd Metals/Mining Minter Ellison/

GreenwichK

PMG 125.00

4 Runge Ltd Industrials Dibbs Abbott Stillman KPMG 50.25

5 Waratah Coal Inc Energy Hopgood Ganim N/A 49.50

6 Credit Suisse GP100–

Australia Trust

Banking/Fin/

Insurance

Malleson Stephen

JaquesN

/A 25.00

Treyo Leisure&

Entertainment LtdI

ndustrials Deacons Grant Thornton 25.00

7 Coal Works Limited Energy Sparke Helmore Nexia Court&Co 20.00

8 Caledon Resources Ltd Metals/Mining Blake Dawson BDO 15.04

9 APAC Coal Limited Energy Steinepreis Paganin Deloitte 15.00

Queensland Mining

Corporation LtdM

etals

 Gaye Associates PKF 15.00

Cape Aluminum Ltd Metals/Mining Hopgood Ganim BDO 15.00

1

0

Southern Cross

Goldfields LtdM

etals/Mining Blakiston&Crabb Stanton Partners 10.00

 /Miningtrackswhich