Australian firms looking to list this year need to hit the IPO runway now if they can make a deal happen by Christmas.
With only two months of 2024 left to launch an initial public offering, it’s looking likely that floats will not be a big part of the investment banking agenda in Australia in a big way until 2025.
The only major deal so far this year has been the listing of Guzman y Gomez, although only a limited number of shares were offered, while payments company Cuscal is trying again for another time to float, with aspirations to list by Christmas.
Another preparing to hit the boards is Victoria civil construction company Symal.
Private equity firms in Australia have a pipeline of companies that they are ready to sell and would welcome an open IPO window to do so.
Providing them with some hope is that US markets are starting to appear more open for IPO deals.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that several sponsored companies have disclosed initial public offering plans in the past few weeks as the pace of debuts this year picks up steam.
One, Partners Group-backed childcare provider KinderCare Learning, revived its IPO plans after earlier calling off an offering over regulatory issues. The Swiss private-equity firm bought KinderCare in 2015.
Carlyle Group’s StandardAero, an aviation repair and maintenance provider Carlyle bought in 2019, registered for an IPO a week ago. Private equity-backed pharmaceutical company MBX Biosciences raised about $US163m in its IPO.
KinderCare and StandardAero are expected to post market values in the billions of US dollars; MBX would be around $US500m.
If the deals go as planned, the offerings would mark a confidence-boosting step for others weighing similar moves after a sharp slump in the US IPO market that began in 2022, according to data from researcher Jay Ritter, an emeritus professor at the University of Florida.
Additional reporting: The Wall Street Journal
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