Shares in Genticel SA lost more than 10 percent during their first day’s trading on the Euronext exchanges in Paris and Brussels Friday. The stock (PARIS, BRUSSELS:GTCL), which it priced at €7.90 (US$10.83) per share, closed at €7.09, which suggests that some investors took a quick exit instead of hanging on for the ride.

Toulouse, France-based Genticel’s underwriters may have structured the transaction too aggressively. Not only did the company price the offering toward the upper end of the indicative range of €6.75 to €8.25 it set at the outset of the bookbuilding period, it also increased the size of the offering from €30 million to €34.5 million.

In the end, the company issued 4,367,088 new shares. Although Genticel said this was in response to demand – the offer was 1.8 times oversubscribed – that demand was insufficiently strong to maintain the robust share price it set. At the offer price, the therapeutic vaccine developer was valued at €119 million. By the day’s close this had fallen to €107 million.

Divergent media responses to the IPO betrayed an element of cultural difference. French commentators hailed the transaction as a success, while their Belgian counterparts dismissed it as flop.

Whichever way it works out in the long term, the company, which also raised €18.2 million 12 months ago, now has plenty of cash to progress what is, for a listed company, a relatively immature pipeline. Its lead program, Procervix, a therapeutic vaccine for women infected with human papilloma virus (HPV) serotypes 16 and/or 18, has just begun a phase II trial.

The vaccine is intended to prevent complications, such as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), which can give rise to cervical cancer. It is exploiting the recent, routine introduction of HPV testing of women undergoing cervical smear tests. (See BioWorld Today, April 26, 2013.)

The transaction is the strongest evidence yet that the IPO window in France has opened, although investor support remains questionable. Shares in Dijon-based oncology firm Oncodesign SA, which began trading last Wednesday, are also under water.

The stock (PARIS:ALONC) closed Friday at €7, down almost 5 percent on its IPO price of €7.34. The company, which focuses on preclinical medicinal chemistry of anticancer drugs, raised €12.8 million on the junior Alternext market.

Amid a certain amount of Angel-Jolie-inspired hype, Bagneux-based molecular diagnostics firm Genomic Vision SA raised €23 million in an IPO priced at €15 per share, which was 4.7 times oversubscribed. The stock (PARIS:GV) then opened at €17.65, but by Friday’s close had dropped back to €14.75.

Next up is Valbonne-based cell therapy firm Txcell SA, which aims to raise around €24 million in about a week.

The company, which is offering just over 3.87 million shares, has set an indicative price range of €5.58 to €6.82. The state investment agency Bpifrance is committed to investing €8 million.