Companies floated by private equity firms in Europe have substantially underperformed other initial public offerings in the past four years, according to analysis by Financial News.

A study of the share price performance of 330 IPOs that raised more than $50m (€39m) since the beginning of 2003 showed private equity-backed deals have lagged their peers in the aftermarket. This casts doubt on the long-held view that private equity-backed deals outperform other IPOs because of their greater financial efficiency and discipline.