Orsted’s jumbo boosts EMEA rights issue recovery
Orsted’s planned DKK 60bn (EUR 8bn) rights issue is set to provide a major boost to EMEA volumes, in what has otherwise been a subdued year.
Rights issue volumes excluding Orsted currently stand at USD 14.6bn across 184 deals YTD, down from USD 16.7bn in the same period of 2024.
The year-on-year dip reflects the sharp market disruption caused by Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in April, which shut the window for larger raises earlier this year.
Even so, 2025 has produced several sizeable transactions. Germany’s EnBW raised EUR 3.1bn (USD 3.6bn) in July, while Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power followed with a SAR 7.1bn (USD 1.9bn) deal that included a rump placing.
Rights offer volumes remain concentrated in utilities, infrastructure and regulated sectors, given intensive capital requirements. Broader corporate issuance has been limited though due to volatile valuations, and competition from bond and hybrid issuance.
Last year, rights issue volumes totalled USD 16.7bn, up from USD 12.5bn in 2023. That recovery was powered by National Grid’s GBP 7.2bn (USD 9.2bn) raise and Alstom’s EUR 999m (USD 1.1bn) deal. But the rest of the 215 trades priced in 2024 were sub-USD 500m, aside from Swiss Life REF’s CHF 620m (USD 692m) raise.
By contrast, seven deals in 2025 have already cleared that bar.
| Pricing Date | Company | Company Geography | Deal Value (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15-Jul-25 | EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG | Germany | 3618 |
| 27-Jul-25 | ACWA Power Co | Saudi Arabia | 1903 |
| 04-Apr-25 | Elia Group SA/NV | Belgium | 1487 |
| 07-May-25 | Warba Bank KSCP | Kuwait | 1424 |
| 24-Jun-25 | Italgas SpA | Italy | 1184 |
| 18-Feb-25 | Pennon Group plc | United Kingdom | 653 |
| 15-Jan-25 | Societe de la Tour Eiffel SA | France | 617 |
Orsted’s rights issue would mark the return of jumbo rights issues to EMEA and could test investor appetite for capital-intensive sectors.
The longer-term trend remains weaker. Rights issue volumes have failed to top USD 20bn annually in Europe since 2019, a sharp contrast to the 2004-2017 period when that threshold was regularly cleared.
Exceptions came only in 2018 (USD 26.5bn) and 2021 (USD 25.7bn). The 2017 peak of USD 57bn across 132 deals looks distant, reflecting a structural shift: companies are more inclined to tap debt, hybrids or targeted equity raises than launch full-scale rights issues.
Orsted’s cash call would finally lift volumes to USD 24bn again making this the best year for European rights issues volumes since the pandemic.
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