Big Differences in Australia’s 2007 and 2008 First Half IPOs

The amount of money raised through new public listings of Australian companies has plunged 93 per cent over the past six months.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey shows only 21 initial public offerings (IPOs) were made in the first half of 2008, raising $334 million.

This compares with 33 IPOs, raising $4.5 billion, over the same period last year. The survey excludes resources, compliance and backdoor listings.

How much is the difference between 4.5 billion and 334 million? Go figure it out.