IPO Market Sees Pullback After Strong Start To 2012: PwC

(Newsroom America) -- Following very healthy levels of IPO activity during the first five months of the year, the number of IPO pricings slowed in mid-May, according to PwC US.

Overall, the number of U.S. IPOs in the second quarter of 2012 declined to 27, from 44 in the first quarter. The second quarter started strongly with 17 IPOs pricing in April, and ten IPOs pricing in May, but IPO activity stalled due to ongoing global macroeconomic concerns that have increased investor uncertainty and market volatility.

Consequently, PwC said there have been no pricings completed in the U.S. since the Facebook IPO in mid-May.

Despite a slowdown in IPO pricings, the registration pipeline remains at high levels and there is optimism that pricing activity will return as some of these concerns are resolved, according to IPO Watch, a quarterly and annual survey of IPOs listed on U.S. stock exchanges by PwC.

Year-to-date, 71 companies have completed IPOs raising total proceeds of $26.9 billion, compared with 85 companies that completed IPOs in the first half of 2011 raising $25.8 billion.

The slowdown in pricings in June led to a 39 percent decrease in volume compared with the first quarter of 2012, and a 48 percent decrease compared to volume in the second quarter of 2011.

Including the $16 billion in proceeds from the Facebook IPO, total IPO proceeds raised in the second quarter of 2012 amounted to $21.2 billion, 66 percent higher than the comparable period in 2011 and the third highest quarterly proceeds since 2007.

"The IPO market entered the second quarter with considerable momentum and with confidence levels supported by the high registration pipeline," said Henri Leveque, leader of PwC's U.S. Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services.

"However, pricing activity proved unsustainable as volatility increased along with renewed concerns over global uncertainty and other market dynamics. That said, as the markets are seeing increasingly compressed IPO windows of opportunity, our clients are now more than ever focused on readying themselves to be able to execute deals when, and not if, the windows re-open."

Excluding Facebook, second quarter IPOs raised total proceeds of $5.2 billion, at an average value of $200 million per IPO, representing an increase of 53 percent over the first quarter average IPO size of $131 million.

Total proceeds, excluding Facebook, were only 10 percent less than the first quarter of 2012, illustrating the strength of the IPO markets earlier in the quarter. Continuing on the positive IPO pricing trends of the first quarter, IPOs in the second quarter produced an un-weighted average return of 8 percent since IPO date, which again exceeded the S&P500 quarterly loss of 6 percent.