TOO SOON FOR SOME IPOS

摘要

What had been a murmur in the final quarter of 2009 is rapidly becoming a roar. Speculation about a boom in initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2010 is now rife. Investment bankers, brimming with a renewed optimism, talk energetically about the evergrowing pipeline of new offerings waiting to hit the market (see Table 1, overleaf). After a year in which the obituary had well and truly been written for IPO issuance, it turns out there is life in the equity capital markets yet. Almost 20 IPOs have been announced already this year, on the back of a busier-than-expected fourth quarter in 2009.