Secondary share issuance by US companies is up by 50% on last year, but the capital raised is only a fraction of the cash being returned to shareholders via buybacks over the same period.
US secondary offerings rose 48% year to date to US$261.6bn, with June to August volumes up 146% to US$115.1bn; Europe climbed 27% to US$72.2bn and APAC 32% to US$61.3bn, while India fell 26% year to date but improved over the summer.
Secondary activity in the United States has accelerated this summer. By end-August, proceeds have reached US$261.6bn, up 48% year on year (YoY), with US$115.1bn printed in June to August alone, up 146%.
Deals got done for mixed purpose: Toronto-Dominion cashed in a legacy stake in Charles Schwab via a US$13.1bn secondary, with Schwab agreeing at the same time to repurchase US$1.5bn of shares from TD.
JAB reduced its holding in Keurig Dr Pepper through a marketed US$ 2.5 bn secondary that followed similar actions in February and October 2024
In early June, Brown & Brown, the insurance broker, issued US$4bn of stock to fund the acquisition of Accession Risk Management Group.
Accelerated book building dominated deal types raising US$84.2 bn, or 59% of total US$ denominated secondary offerings this year.
According to a note by JP Morgan strategy team on 22 September: “S&P 500 companies have announced stock buybacks at an unprecedented rate, with close to $960 billion committed year to date—significantly surpassing the three-year average of $644 billion.”
in 2025, Apple is planning to repurchase US$100 bn of its stock, Alphabet (Google) US$70 bn; Nvidia US$60bn, JPMorgan US$50bn.
European activity firmed from spring levels ; also our reader should note that our dataset does not include right issues offering include the current Orsted jumbo issuance.
Year-to-date proceeds rose to US$72.2bn, 27% above 2024, and the summer window more than doubled to US$23.4bn. Amongst deals, Exor sold around 4% of Ferrari, for about US$3.1 bn in a February accelerated bookbuild, while Ferrari repurchased US$360m of shares from Exor in the ABB.
According to Barclays, buybacks in the Stoxx600 will reach US$250bn this year.
APAC (excluding India and the Middle East) volumes grow year 32% YoY to US$61.3bn with US$23.6bn during summer, up 46%. Deals in APAC are also a mix of sell-downs and company raises: In early March, Japan Post Holdings continued the multi-year government-directed privatisation by selling shares worth US$3.9bn in Japan Post Bank.
Goodman Group , in Australia raised US$2.5bn to fund data-centre growth in February through a direct offering to registered investors.
India’ activity cooled down on the year but reaccelerated during summer. Indian rupee denominated offerings totalled US$25.8bn year to date, down 26%, while June to August volumes rose 11% YoY.
State Bank of India raised $2.9bn in July, via a qualified institutional placement (QIP) to better its capital ratios.
British American Tobacco monetised a 2.5% stake, worth US$1.5bn, in ITC via an accelerated bookbuild in May.
Singtel reduced its Bharti Airtel holding as part of participation reduction selling off US$1.5bn worth of stock in May. Deals were a mix of QIPs, block trades and reg 144A secondary offerings.
Middle East activity was more sporadic. Year-to-date proceeds for secondary offerings sit at US$4.9bn, with a smaller uptick than elsewhere this summer. ADNOC executed two significant deals for market-development reasons: It sold a US$2.84bn stake in ADNOC gas in February with a view to increase free float. In August it places US$317m in ADNOC logistics & services to also raise free float. It said both deals were meant to support MSCI inclusion.
Saudi Arabia lifter the 5% of foreign ownership limits on 24 September.
Our dataset comes from Bloomberg Data aggregated monthly currency-of-issuance basis; “Summer” refers to June to August 2025.
Our dataset does not include rights issues; for context, Europe is currently seeing a jumbo example in Denmark from Ørsted worth US9.4bn. Italgas raised US$1.2 bn via a right issue, Samsung SDI raised US$1.4 bn.
