Funding raised by European initial public offerings tripled in the final three months of last year compared to the same period a year earlier, but the outlook for the market is uncertain, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the consultancy group.

The firm's latest IPO Watch Europe survey found that European IPOs raised €8.6bn ($11.5bn) in the last quarter compared to €2.6bn in the last three months of 2003. The number of deals more than doubled from 71 to 151 over the same period.