Privatization in 2006 - the year of Chinese IPOs

Our privatization database – listing transactions of at least $1 million from 2000 to 2006 - has been updated again.  In 2006, 48 developing countries carried out 249 privatizations for a total value of $105 billion – a figure comparable to the record year 1997.

The graph below depicts the value of privatization transactions in developing countries between 1990 and 2006. The figure excludes the two IPOs of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of China, which combined accounted for $35 billion - one-third of all proceeds in 2006:

Russia and Turkey followed China into the second and third place, while Poland bucked the general trend toward privatization that year.

Our interactive map has the full picture.