The relaxation of electronically excited porphycene in acetonitrile solution has been studied by transient absorption spectroscopy supported by global analysis techniques. Three processes following the femtosecond pulse excitation to the S 2 state have been identified: the intramolecular vibrational redistribution on the time scale of tens of femtoseconds, the internal conversion S 2 right arrow-wavy S 1 (750 fs) and thermal equilibration of the molecule by energy exchange with the solvent (16 ps). The recorded transient absorption kinetics exhibit oscillations which have been assigned to the evolution of wavepackets in both S 1 and S 0 states.