Wall Street is praying firms will start going public again
The IPO market is on its longest cold streak since 1980
Can you feel the chill? It is bone-deep, now. In 2021 capital markets were searing hot. On average, at least one new firm went public every working day. But financial districts today are icy. For two long years private companies have spurned public markets, as rising interest rates dashed lofty valuations and stock prices vacillated.
All this has been bad news for Wall Street. In 2021 America’s five largest investment banks together earned an average of $13bn per quarter through their dealmaking and initial-public-offering (IPO) desks. Over the next two years they managed barely half of that.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline "The bleak midwinter"
Finance & economics January 20th 2024
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