The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Europe may more than treble this year as the biggest stock-market rally in a decade lures buyers and economic growth recovers, bankers said.

Sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are likely to surpass the €19.5bn ($28bn) raised in 2008, according to bankers at Citigroup, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. That would be at least three times the $8.9bn sold in 2009, which was the smallest amount since 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Amongst the IPOs in Asia this year will be Tiger Airways, which is backed by the Ryan family behind Ryanair.

IPOs in Europe have been slower to recover than in the US and Asia, where economies have returned to growth sooner. Government asset sales and private-equity firms may lead the rebound in Europe, bankers said. Blackstone Group may sell shares of travel-reservation company Travelport as soon as February, while BC Partners plans to sound out buyers on an IPO of retirement-home operator Medica France this month.

"2010 will be a very busy year, but assets will need to be carefully prepared," said Tim Harvey-Samuel, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa equity capital markets origination at Citigroup in London. Private-equity firms "will be active users of the market," which will include businesses selling their units and governments cutting stakes in companies, he said.

European companies, which raised more in IPOs than their counterparts in the US and Asia in the three years through 2007, lagged behind the rest of the world during the credit crisis last year. Sales in Western Europe dwindled to account for an eighth of the global market, data compiled by Bloomberg show. US companies may this year seek as much as $50bn, according to estimates by Barclays Plc, three times the $16.4bn they raised in 2009.