Wit Capital Europe, the internet investment bank which launched this year, will not directly benefit from last week's acquisition of E*Offering by Wit Capital in the US.

Last week Wit Capital paid $328m (&euro360.8m) for EOffering, its main rival in the US market for online distribution of online IPOs. Under the terms of the deal, Wit Capital will act as the exclusive provider of online IPOs for five years to the customers of ETrade, the online brokerage firm which owns 25% of E*Offering.