3 reasons why US firms are taking longer to go public

SINGAPORE (Jan 9): It was an encouraging 2017 for the S&P 500, booking a full year of monthly total gains for the first time ever. But the elephant in the room still remains about the shrinking pool US companies going public.

According to data from Dealogic in a Dec 2017 report, the past year had been a record one for US-listed IPO volume and activity since 2014 – with issuance on the US exchanges totaling US$47.8 billion ($63.6 billion) via 179 IPOs.

This, however, remains at nearly half of the record full-year 2014 performance of the US$92.9 billion raised via 292 IPOs – as pointed out by a recent article in The Financial Times, which underscores the gravity of the dearth of IPOs that may in turn affect the US economy.

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