By William Kemble-Diaz & Peter Starck
LONDON (Reuters) - This year's slide in European property stocks has yet to run its course and sentiment is unlikely to improve soon, after a run of pulled initial public offerings (IPOs), a leading banker said on Tuesday.
"You know you're pushing water uphill, that sentiment is against you despite the strong fundamentals," Ian Marcus, chairman of European real estate investment banking at Credit Suisse said at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in London.
Marcus is also the incoming president of UK trade body the British Property Federation -- the first banker to hold this post in a further sign of real estate's shift into the investment mainstream.
He said the market was following a familiar pattern, citing a similar spring bout of property IPO indigestion in 2006 after a rush of deals in the first few months of the year.
UK hotel owner Vector Hospitality, Germany's Boetzelen Real Estate (BOEG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Dutch-owned Uni-Invest and Spain's Reyal Urbis and Tremon are among the property IPOs cancelled this month, against a backdrop of falling property shares.
The FTSE NAREIT/EPRA index of European property shares is down almost 15 percent since mid-April, unlike the broader FTSEurofirst stock market index .FTEU, which is up 2.6 percent in the period.
CHANGE IN SENTIMENT
Marcus gave no assurances that the property IPO market might reopen soon, while the volatility in the market persisted. Continued...
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