Ebb & Flow

With two months of the year already gone, the trends are saying that the IPO window is helping to open venture purse strings. In the U.S., private companies raised $641 million to the end of February, beating the $470 million raised in the first two months of 2002, which was the previous best start of the last five years.

Helping matters is the widening valuation gap between public tech and biotech plays. Last week, the BioCentury 100 added 5.6%, putting the index up 13.3% on the year. By comparison the NASDAQ Composite added only 0.9% last week and is now up just 2.2% in 2004. The BioCentury London Index is up 9% on the year, after a 3.8% gain last week. ...