For the first time in over six months, Wall Street is coming to town with a multi-deal IPO calendar. Bankers plan to price five new issues this week, and there’s something for everyone.
Wall Street’s syndicate calendar was far from dead in January. The traffic came from secondary offerings as 14 deals were priced. However, IPOs are not far behind. The new-issue door is expected to swing open during the week of February 9. Five deals are on the launching pad.
As January 2009 comes to a close, the whole world is still waiting for the year’s first U.S. IPO. One was scheduled for last week, but it was pushed back to February. You might say it was a victim of the stock market’s sell-off.
Here we are starting the second week of January and not an IPO in sight. Just because deals aren’t floating into the market like snowflakes ahead of a blizzard doesn’t mean the new-issue market is dead. The question is: Could it be market conditions or could it be a seasonal factor?
By now the whole world knows 2008 went into the record books as the worst year for stocks since 1931. And when the stock market tanks, IPOs disappear. While everybody has been bad-mouthing the stock market, the bull may have quietly slipped back in town.
By December’s third week, the IPO market has traditionally run its course. The bad news in 2008 was it was finished on Nov. 11, when Grand Canyon Education (Nasdaq: LOPE) (quote, news, chart & competitors) priced its IPO. The good news was bankers were giving IPO investors a message – a big message.
With the three major U.S. stock market indexes down anywhere from 35 percent to 42 percent for the year, you won’t see any IPO filings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing window. The only traffic has been withdrawals and secondary offerings. Last week was an example.