It was a mixed bag for Europe's market in initial public offerings this week, as U.K. oil producer Fairfield Energy pulled its planned $500 million initial public offering in London, but Germany's Stroer Out-of-Home Media AG managed to price Frankfurt's third-largest deal so far this year.

Fairfield Energy, which wanted the money to step up production in North Sea oil fields it owns, officially blamed market conditions for the indefinite postponement, while people close to the transaction acknowledged that investor interest had been weak. The company was formed in 2005 with financial backing from a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus, to buy and develop relatively mature North Sea oil assets being offloaded by oil giants such as BP PLC (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA).

Bankers said market conditions are by no means ideal this month, but that volatility has eased and "the right deals" for companies with strong growth prospects can still get done. Shares in Stroer-Out-Of-Home Media, which brought a EUR393 million deal, started trading Thursday, and were slightly down on their EUR20 issue price by late afternoon. Assuming overallotments are made in full, Stroer will receive about EUR310 million in new capital and selling shareholder Cerberus Capital Management LP will get about EUR80 million.

Its fundraising put it behind Kabel Deutschland Holding AG (KD8.XE) and Brenntag AG (BNR.XE) for Frankfurt's biggest IPOs so far this year.

In London, Fairfield Energy's failure has stepped up pressure on online grocer Ocado Group PLC to get its controversial GBP510 million deal away. Ocado on Thursday said the offer is still on track to complete next week, and is getting a "great reception" from U.S. investors meeting with its management team this week.

Some analysts and fund managers have advised investors to avoid the offer, though, on concerns over the prospects for future profitability and competitiveness, and because the roughly GBP1 billion valuation target is seen as too high compared with other listed retailers.

Looking beyond the typically slow summer months, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is set to make its own debut in November, the Polish treasury ministry said Thursday. It named four banks to manage the global offer--Citigroup Inc. (C), JP Morgan Chase & Co.(JPM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS) and UBS AG (UBS).

Poland's PKO Bank Polski (PKO.WA), Ipopema Securities SA (IPE.WA), KBC Group NV (KBC.BT) and Societe Generale SA (GLE.FR) will additionally act as book runners.

Poland is to offer 63% of the bourse's shares, cutting its current 98.8% holding. The transaction is part of its massive privatization program that has already resulted in some of Europe's biggest IPOs this year.

An even bigger mandate, for Enel SpA's (ENEL.MI) Green Power unit, is also due to be made this month, Chief Executive Officer Fulvio Conti told Dow Jones Newswires Monday. Bankers in London and Italy are keenly waiting to hear if they have won the business, after making June pitches to run the multi-billion euro deal.

The IPO is expected to be made in Milan in October.

-By Margot Patrick, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9451; margot.patrick@dowjones.com
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