Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

 

Just because the IPO market is slipping into its traditional slumber from mid-August to mid-September doesn’t mean the rumor mill was quiet. More Alibaba Group Holding stories made the rounds last week. Pull up a chair. Here they are.

 

 

The IPO Express is gearing up this week for what could be its final run of the summer. But the winds of August have not been at its back.

 

Stocks are bought on hope, held in greed and sold in fear. The driving force behind these emotions is interest rates, earnings and, at times, politics. Politics from the Middle East, Ukraine and Argentina rained on Wall Street’s parade last week. The summer downpour drove the major U.S. stock market indexes down well over 2 percent each.

 

It looks like the 2014 IPO market is holding an “end-of-summer” sale this week. The calendar has 22 new issues expecting to raise $6.7 billion. We have to reach back to 2000 for a busier IPO weekly calendar. This was the week of Sept. 25, 2000. That calendar had 23 new issues expecting to raise $2.95 billion; of this group, 18 got out the door.

 

 

The IPO market has steamrolled through July’s first three weeks and is on track to produce the busiest July since 2000. Bankers have already priced 13 deals that raised $1.2 billion from the calendar for July so far.

 

 

The IPO Orchestra is getting ready to strike up the music for 2014’s second half. It is playing the same tune as it did when 2014 began: “The Waltz of The Pharmaceuticals.” Six of the 15 IPOs on the forward calendar are pharmaceutical companies.

 

“Alibaba, Alibaba, where are you?” The world wants to know. The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind. And that wind will be blowing through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) filing window all in good time. Until then, we wait.

 

 

The July 4^th week is traditionally vacation time in Wall Street’s underwriting world, but not this year. This week has six IPOs. Nevertheless, most of the Street will still be out of town. It seems there is only one new face on the calendar. The other five offerings are carryovers from last week. The IPO traffic will close down by mid-week.

 

June is busting out all over the IPO world. Eleven IPOs were priced last week, bringing June’s total to 20, and this week’s calendar has another 17 deals on the launching pad. The last time there was more action in June came during the insanity-dot-com Internet bubble of 2000 when 39 IPOs were priced, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The reason for the surging IPO market in June 2014 is simple. It’s the stock market.

 

 

This week’s IPO calendar features 14 deals looking to raise over $3 billion. This is the second week in 2014 so far to boast 14 IPOs on the calendar. The pharmaceuticals industry, a lagging IPO sector, rules this week’s calendar with eight IPOs. Next up: Energy, a hot IPO industry, accounts for three IPOs. The sizzle, though, comes from swinging London town: Markit, a financial services information provider, is reportedly on the “most wanted” list.