The World’s Largest IPOs Adjusted For Inflation

By Omri Wallach of Visual Capitalist

Friday, December 4, 2020 7:56 AM EST

Company	IPO Date	Industry	Deal Size ($B)	Inflation Adjusted ($B)
ICBC	Oct 2006	Financials	14	18.1
Japan Tobacco Inc.	Oct 1994	Consumer Staples	9.6	16.7
AT&T Wireless Group	Apr 2000	Communication Services	10.6	16.1
Rosneft Oil Company	Jul 2006	Energy	10.4	13.3
Dai-ichi Life	Mar 2010	Financials	11	13.2
Kraft Foods	Jun 2001	Consumer Staples	8.7	12.7
Agricultural Bank (H.K.)	Jul 2010	Financials	10.4	12.4
Bank of China	May 2006	Financials	9.2	11.8
France Telecom	Oct 1997	Communication Services	7.3	11.7
Glencore	May 2011	Materials	10	11.5

Company	IPO Date	Industry	Deal Size ($B)	Inflation Adjusted ($B)
Alibaba (H.K.)	Nov 2019	Technology	11.2	11.3
Electricite De France	Nov 2005	Utilities	8.3	11
Agricultural Bank (China)	Jul 2010	Financials	8.9	10.6
Hengshi Mining	Nov 2013	Materials	9.3	10.4
Japan Airlines	Sep 2012	Industrials	8.5	9.5

Despite the recent flurry of IPO activity, only two of the largest 10 inflation-adjusted IPOs occurred in the last two years, with second place Saudi Aramco and Japan’s communications and tech conglomerate SoftBank.

Including NTT Docomo, three of the top 10 occurred in the 1990s. Italy’s energy giant ENEL SpA raised the equivalent of $25.9 billion in 1999, and German communications company Deutsche Telekom raised the equivalent of $21.3 billion in 1996.

Communications services accounted for five of the top 25 IPOs, and four of the top 10. Only the financials were more prominent with six of the top 25.