Those sizeable U.K. offerings

In an IPO market where many U.S. biotech companies are taking haircuts on their road shows, U.K.-based Cambridge Antibody Technology managed to raise £41.3 million (US$66 million). To provide a parallel, on Friday Cell Therapeutics (CTIC) - a U.S. biotech company with a cancer product in Phase III trials - sold its 3 million-share IPO at $10. CTIC had hoped to sell the shares at $14-$16. More generally, the eight U.S. IPOs completed this year raised from $14 million to $62 million each, for an average of $30 million per offering.

Ebb & Flow asked some U.K. investors why their brethren are so generous...