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Investors are bracing for what could be the revival of a once-hot IPO market.
If the global IPO market rebounds, it will be the Asia-Pacific region that will lead the recovery, IPO market watchers say.
Asia-Pacific IPOs kept market returns positive through a disastrous quarter for global IPOs, says Kathleen Smith, co-founder of Renaissance Capital, a Greenwich, -Connecticut-based IPO research firm. Thanks to high-performing China A shares -- which trade only in renminbi -- Asia-Pacific IPOs were up 9 percent for the quarter. Founder Securities, a Chinese financial services partner of Credit Suisse, raised $909 million and was up 44 percent on its first day of trading. Founder continues to trade at well above 75 percent of its offering price.
Smith believes that Asia-Pacific IPOs, driven by privatization of government entities and spin-offs of strong subsidiaries, along with consumer and materials sector companies, will continue to drive the global IPO market. She also expects overall fundamentals to improve because of the number of companies in the pipeline --...