Global Finance: When’s A Good Time To IPO?

Global volumes of IPOs in the first half of 2023 were down 5%, with proceeds down 36% year-over-year. Many factors, including inflation, interest rate hikes, low profitability, and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine have contributed to the low IPO activity this year, but Jeeho Lee argues that there are positive signs of things warming up. “Of course, while still possible, it’s suboptimal to go public when the market is not excited about equity investing,” said Lee, a partner at O’Melveny and chair of the firm’s Capital Markets practice. “But I think the existence of a relatively healthy pipeline of IPOs and the fact that most of the recent IPOs are still trading well suggests that we should be expecting a thaw in the IPO market. All the IPO market players are looking for a reason to get off the sidelines.”

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