US IPOs off to their best start in a while

For the first time in three years, Wall Street’s equity capital markets bankers appear to have the wind at their backs. Initial public offerings have gotten off to their best start to a year since the heady days of 2021, with more than $20 billion raised in the first six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

With sales of convertible bonds and shares in already-listed companies also nearing pandemic-era levels, the stuttering activity seen last year has evolved into a regular rhythm. Though surpassing 2021’s historic volume isn’t on the horizon yet, confidence is growing that 2024 is the bounce-back year that a slew of would-be public companies have been waiting for.

“A key reason we’ve been in a better issuance window in recent months is the healthy engagement from the full investor community,” said Andrew Wetenhall, co-head of Americas ECM at Morgan Stanley. Volume is charting to a pace that feels more like a normal year for issuance on a pre-Covid basis, and sovereign investors, pension funds, long-only investors and hedge funds are all enabling deals to get done, he said.

Elizabeth Reed, global head of equity syndicate at Goldman Sachs Group, sees more balanced valuation discussions happening, with the result reflecting both asset quality and investor feedback.

“Some people like to talk about ‘de-risking’ the IPO, but IPOs aren’t risky if you truly understand an asset,” Reed said. Rallying equity markets and relatively low volatility are giving companies like cold storage giant Lineage confidence to push ahead with sizable listings in the second half of the year.