There was a slight fall in the size of new wealth caused by IPOs, trade sales and other liquidity events for Western Europe-based firms last year, and spread among more people, than a year before.

The amount of new wealth that investors earned from liquidity events such as mergers, takeovers and share floats of Western Europe-headquartered firms fell in 2015 below the level seen a year before, but more people shared in the largesse, according to figures from Wealthmonitor.

Figures for 2015 show that among 12,717 beneficiaries, a total of £44.773 billion ($64.613 billion) of new wealth was created, with UK-based firms creating the largest amount, at £16.301 billion, followed by Germany, at £7.323 billion, and Italy, at £3.411 billion. The smallest figure in the list was for Gibraltar-based companies where M&A, IPOs or other events had caused wealth creation, at £105 million, the data showed. 

The total amount of wealth created for investors from Europe-based firms for 2014, meanwhile, was £50.367 billion, spread among 10,835 beneficiaries, the Wealthmonitor data, produced exclusively for this publication, showed.

In the data, new wealth is defined as liquidity events caused by sales of stakes in firms, IPOs and the exercise of share options. To be captured, a liquidity event must involve a deal worth at least £200,000 per transaction; tracked firms are headquartered in Western Europe where there are no limits on where shareholders are based.

For 2015, the top sector for liquidity events was leisure, at £4.362 billion, followed by computer software, at £3.711 billion, and services (other) at 3.574 billion, Wealthmonitor said.

This year’s data also sheds light on the continued predominance of men as holders of newly-minted wealth: men accounted for 81 per cent of beneficiaries of liquidity events, and women made up 19 per cent of such beneficiaries. In 2014, the shares of men and women were 81.56 per cent and 18.44 per cent, respectively, indicating a slight uptick in the share among women.

Average new wealth per head last year was £2.132 billion, with a median of £769.5 million, the data showed.