More initial public offerings are being pulled as investors turn cautious in the face of choppy markets and a glut of deals.
At least eight companies in Europe, including health-care property company Icade Sante SAS, have put plans on ice over the past month. In New York, wellness platform Better Being Co. and investment software firm Allvue Systems Holdings Inc. scrapped offerings, while TPG-Backed Novotech Health last month said it wouldn’t pursue a Hong Kong IPO.
A raft of listings coming to market in recent weeks means investors have become picky about where they put their money. Equity markets worldwide have also turned volatile in the past month amid soaring energy prices, faster inflation and a debt crisis at China Evergrande Group.
“If it’s not a really must-have type of company, then sellers are at the mercy of investors,” said Thorsten Pauli, head of equity capital markets for Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Bank of America Corp. “It’s clearly a buyer’s market.”
Investors and market watchdogs alike are pushing back against heady price tags. Kakao Pay Corp., South Korea’s largest online payment service, slashed the size of its IPO at the behest of local regulators concerned about soaring tech valuations. And some U.S. IPOs priced below their initial ranges over the past few weeks.
Still, IPOs worth billions of dollars are currently in the market, with more big offerings announced nearly every day. Swedish automaker Volvo Car Group AB, Abu Dhabi’s fertilizer firm Fertiglobe and U.S. chipmaker GlobalFoundries Inc. all kicked off listings this week.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
