The resurgence in the European initial public offering market continues to gather pace with Evolution Group, the UK investment bank and retail fund management group, planning to float IP2IPO, its intellectual property business, next month.

KBC Peel Hunt, a UK broker, is nominated adviser and broker to IP2IPO, which will float on AIM, the smaller companies market of the London Stock Exchange. The company is looking for up to £25m (€36m) of fresh capital which will give it a market capitalisation of between £100m and £110m. This a threefold increase in value in the past two years. In August 2001 Evolution Beeson Gregory (then called Beeson Gregory) placed a 13.5% stake in IP2IPO with institutional investors to raise £4.5m, implying a value for the whole business of about £33m.