Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

The Visa IPO is emerging from the mist of falling stock prices and a dwindling new-issue calendar like a shining light. The blockbuster deal with a big brand name has attracted a lot of attention.

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Over the years, there are two factors that slow down or stop the IPO calendar. One is stock market conditions and the other is seasonal factors. Both forces have made their appearances in today’s new-issues market.

Since the first of the year, the IPO market has done nothing but slip, slide and stumble. Last week’s traffic was an example.

The financial press has recently reported a surge in the number of IPO cancellations, but that’s only half the story. What has been overlooked has been the number of new IPO filings. They have been running at a faster pace. The ratio of new filings versus cancellations has been 2-to-1.

The timetable for the IPO Express can be found in the new-issues calendar. Lately it has been bleak, due to the stock market’s correction. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good, and the recent blast of frigid weather on Wall Street could not have come at a better time for the IPO calendar.

The best thing about this week’s IPO calendar is most of the deals are to be priced Thursday evening for Friday’s trading. By then, hopefully, the stock market’s four-week sell-off will have been snapped.

If you think an 11-day sell-off of 10.4 percent in the Nasdaq Composite Index spooked bankers, think again. The forward IPO calendar started filling up and, during the first two weeks of the year, they added nearly as many deals to the IPO pipeline as they did during the first two weeks, collectively, over the last five years.

The gates to 2008’s IPO market swing open this week with just two offerings on the agenda. One is a popular deal everybody loves – a “blank check” offering –- and the other is a carry-over from the past.

By the end of the year, 2007’s IPO market was looking more and more like Aesop’s fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” There were some jackrabbit aftermarket performances among this year’s offerings. But the real story was the surging number of “blank check” offerings -– the tortoises. All traded around their offering prices -– no aftermarket pops and no aftermarket flops.