When British vacuum technology firm Edwards tried to launch on the London stock market last year by selling just over one third of its shares, choppy markets forced the company to pull its debut at the last minute.
Undeterred, Edwards headed for the United States where more relaxed regulations allowed the company to shrink the size of the stake it offered investors to 12 percent.
Last month, it floated in New York raising a less ambitious $100 million, rather than the 350 million-450 million pounds ($544-$622 million) originally planned for London.
Fee-hungry investment bankers would like to try shrinking the size of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Europe to revive a major source of their income that is shrinking fast.
But two things stand in their way: regulators that set a minimum IPO size and investors who need persuading that small equity sales are in their interests too. Bankers say the US trend of companies selling a smaller stake at the time they join the stock market has helped keep IPO activity flowing there despite difficult markets, as sellers are willing to let their shares go more cheaply.
"In the US IPO discounts are high, around 30 to 50 percent. But issuers are tolerating those discounts as they are doing very small deals," an equity capital markets (ECM) banker said.
The amount raised from US IPOs is up 35 percent year-to-date on the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. While the amount raised is boosted by Facebook'sbumper $16 billion debut, the total number of IPOs is 17.5 percent higher than a year ago.