US leads the way in IPO renaissance
Recovery of flotations sees American firms raise most since 2007, with more to come next year
Twitter and Hilton Worldwide helped lead the best year for United States initial public offerings (IPOs) since the financial crisis, with strong trading debuts likely to stoke investor demand for new shares next year.
Companies raised about US$22 billion in US listings in the fourth quarter, bringing the total for the year to US$56 billion, the most since 2007, data shows. Sales in Europe and Asia also rose sharply, with global deals tripling from the prior three months.
In Asia, four companies had IPOs of more than US$1 billion each, led by China Cinda Asset Management's US$2.5 billion offering this month.
"It's been a good period to do capital raising," said Alan Richardson, a money manager at Samsung Asset Management. "The environment in general has been improving, led by the US stock market, and this in turn has contributed to more risk appetite in developed Asia."
Sica Wealth Management president Jeff Sica said stock gains that lifted benchmarks to records pushed investors in the US to seek new opportunities, fuelling demand for IPOs.
Deutsche Bank's global head of equity capital market, Mark Hantho, said the success of new listings - with stocks from New York to Tokyo jumping an average of 28 per cent in their trading debuts - was luring investors and companies into the market for next year. "We've had a renaissance of the IPO market," he said.