France's Financial Markets Authority study finds Paris listed issuers fell by more than 25% since 2007, with the regulated market down by more than half

France's Financial Markets Authority has published a study on market-based financing in Paris over 2007-2025, finding a prolonged erosion in the number of listed issuers and a market that is more concentrated around large companies. The number of issuers listed in Paris fell from 818 at the end of 2007 to fewer than 600 at the end of 2025, with the regulated Euronext Paris market losing more than 50% of its companies. The study attributes the decline mainly to a structural weakening in initial public offerings since the subprime crisis, rather than to a rise in delistings or a broad shift by French companies to list abroad. Since 2024, the SME and growth market Euronext Growth has also started to decline. The study also finds that upward transfers from growth markets to the regulated market have largely dried up, while transfers from Euronext Paris to Euronext Growth have increased as smaller companies seek a better fit between listing obligations, costs and company size. Those downward transfers do not appear to weaken valuations or companies' ability to raise equity, but they are associated with a marked drop in trading volumes. More broadly, Paris has remained weak at attracting foreign issuers, and listed companies appear more fragile than in 2007, with lower profitability, higher leverage for most segments and a larger share of financially fragile firms, especially among smaller companies. On financing activity, equity issuance in Paris has remained significant but cyclical, with recent capital raises mainly used to strengthen equity and reduce debt, while corporate bond issuance has been strong overall but remains concentrated in large companies, with SME and midcap access rising until 2017 before losing momentum.