General Motors, the US car company, helped push November to be the busiest month on record for global initial public offerings with more than $50bn raised – despite sovereign concerns in Europe leading to a withdrawal of deals.

Global initial public offerings last month hit $50.1bn, meaning that it overtook the previous record that had been set just one month earlier, when Hong Kong-based insurer AIA and India's Coal India pushed the monthly total to $47.7bn, according to Thomson Reuters.