Business Insight Zone

We’re about to release our quarterly IPO Scorecard, which covers initial public offerings made — or, lately, not made — on U.S. exchanges. But I thought I’d also take a wider trawl through the world markets to see what’s happening on the IPO front beyond the borders of the United States.

Short-form verdict: Yeeccch.

Let’s roll some bullet points, eh?

• MarketWatch: PBN Releases Quarterly Review of Russian & CIS IPOs — “Only one CIS company — Acron, a Russian fertilizer company — floated in Q3 of this year, raising only $2.7 million in a dramatically reduced, technical offering. This contrasts with the $1.1bn raised in Q2 and the $566m raised in Q1 of 2008. Acron’s IPO is the smallest CIS IPO to date in terms of capital raised.”
• The Times of India: US crisis takes toll on Asian IPO market — “The worsening financial crisis in the US has dealt a serious blow to the initial public offering (IPO) market, with India’s proceeds dipping by 34% to $4.4 billion from 35 deals till September this year. Overall the Asian IPO market posted the worst performance in 10 years with third quarter volumes plummeting to $4.4 billion from 65 issues.”
• The Scotsman: Slump in confidence hits IPO offerings - “GLOBAL fundraising has fallen to its lowest level in more than five years, as volatility causes companies to shun turbulent markets. According to data published today, the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) worldwide fell to 159 in the third quarter of the year, raising just $13.1 billion (£7.4bn), the lowest level since the second quarter of 2003.”
• The Financial Post (of Canada): Not a single IPO launched on TSX in Q3 - “Unprecedented uncertainty in capital markets has wilted all demand for initial public offerings in North America. In Canada, not a single IPO was launched on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the third quarter, marking the first quarter in at least a decade that Canada’s largest equities market failed to attract a new listing, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.” [I'm quoted in this article.]

Sometime down the line the IPO situation is sure to get better. The big question for companies ready to go public is “When?”

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Related posts:

• Waiting for IPO.
• Weakness prevails in the IPO market.
• Rackspace’s IPO — what it tells us about the IPO market.

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(Picture of the Hong Kong stock exchange by heycreation, used under CC-Share Alike license.)

Category: Economics, IPOs