{"id":159990,"date":"2025-09-25T17:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T17:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159990\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T17:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T17:59:08","slug":"retail-investors-drive-a-flurry-of-ipos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159990\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail investors drive a flurry of IPOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The IPO market sprang back to life last week, said Bailey Lipschultz in Bloomberg. Six companies raised more than $4 billion in \u201cthe busiest period\u201d for initial public offerings since 2021. The highlight was Klarna<\/a>, the fintech firm that raised $1.37 billion and saw its shares pop 30% on their first day of trading. Gemini, a crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, and Figure, a crypto lender, also made strong debuts. For those using the flood of deals as a measure of \u201cjust how frothy the stock market is getting,\u201d however, the reading was \u201cmixed.\u201d The median listing \u201copened 31% above the offer price,\u201d which, while strong, doesn\u2019t \u201cpoint to unbridled enthusiasm.\u201d Still, it was encouraging for the IPO market, which has been bottled up for years. \u201cRoughly $29 billion has been raised on U.S. exchanges\u201d so far this year, which \u201cpales in comparison to the manic years during the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conditions for an IPO rebound look favorable now, said Pan Yuk in the Financial Times. \u201cStock markets are at or near all-time highs, and the market is pricing in a high likelihood of an interest rate cut<\/a>\u201d this week. Much of the tariff drama from the Trump administration<\/a> is behind us. Renaissance Capital anticipates 40 to 60 more U.S. IPOs \u201ccould raise roughly $10 billion\u201d before the end of the year. It\u2019s notable, however, that much of the IPO excitement \u201cis being driven by companies from pumped-up sectors,\u201d like AI and crypto<\/a>. You can be sure that bankers will be rushing to use this window of market calm for listings, said Paul J. Davies in Bloomberg, because experience shows that it can slam shut quickly. \u201cIndustry and finance have adjusted to President Trump\u2019s mercurial policymaking,\u201d but \u201che hasn\u2019t lost the power to shock with some new wild decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Retail investors are playing a bigger role in IPOs than ever before, said Corrie Driebusch and Hannah Erin Lang in The Wall Street Journal. Individuals typically get about 6% of the IPO, with institutions buying up the bulk of the shares. But Gemini and others \u201cearmarked nearly a third\u201d of shares for retail investors, a sign of their growing influence on the actions of Wall Street. Retail demand is starting to change the dynamics of IPO pricing, said Madison Mills in Axios. \u201cTypically, a bank handling an IPO would sell shares to a select group of institutions or funds\u201d that it can work with to set the price. But companies are coming around to the idea that they want individual investors in their IPOs, and more management teams \u201cwant to engage retail from the beginning.\u201d Retail investors create buzz, and they hang on to their shares longer than money managers who often sell as soon as the stock \u201cpops\u201d on the first day.<\/p>\n

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