Apart from the surge in new internation equity issues, growing innovation in the way stocks are packaged is the most striking feature of the current Euro-equity scene.
Convertible bonds, bonds with equity warrants, convertible preferred shares, equity notes, common stock with warrants, nonvoting shares and shares in the form of depository receipts have all been successful routes for a long list of companies, many of them first-time users of the international
' equity market.
A Euromoney poll of internationally traded corporations planning an international equity offering, published in September, found that the favourite form of Euro-equity offering was still common shares, with 31.7% of the votes. But convertible bonds and bonds with equity warrants came close behind, with 26.8% and 24.4%, respectively.
In terms of actual volume, Euromoney statistics show a dramatic increase in the issue of Eurobonds with equity warrants this year $11.6 billion as of October 10, compared with $2.7 billion in the whole of 1985. Convertible Eurobond issues rose slightly, to $4.9 billion &om $4.6 billion. Straight Euro-equity offerings, including the increasingly popular form of non-voting stock by companies in continental Europe, continued their strong advance, reaching $7.9 billion, compared with $3.5