Number of European IPOs plunged to 18 in Q1-survey

WARSAW, April 7 (Reuters) - European bourses saw only eighteen initial public offerings worth a measly 9 million euros ($12.2 million) in the first quarter with companies unwilling to test the gloomy markets, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The results in a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed to the worst ever quarter on record and compared with 72 IPOs in the year-ago period valued at 1.9 billion euros.

"These continue to be dire times for the IPO market globally. Things have rapidly gone from bad to worse as Europe's IPO markets appear to have shut up shop," Richard Weaver, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers's Capital Markets Group said in a statement.

"There is undoubtedly pent-up demand from companies seeking to access the IPO market but it would be a brave person who could foresee the market returning before 2010," he said.

The sole bright spot, albeit on a small scale, was the Warsaw bourse, which led in terms of number of listing and their value, hosting six IPOs worth 4 million euros.

London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) Main Market and AIM attracted three debuts. Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ.O) and NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) hosted four and three IPOs respectively, none of which raised any funds. ($1=.7389 EURO) (Reporting by Chris Borowski; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)