If it was difficult to complete initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first half of this year, the final six months of 2011 are likely to be even tougher.
After the FTSE 100 had fallen 9.8% in the first week of August, the Standard & Poor's 500 7.2% and the Hang Seng 6.7%, bankers began to have serious doubts about the immediate future of IPOs across the globe. “We’ve had a cocktail of events that could shut the market for several weeks, maybe months, unless a catalyst event dramatically changes the current mood,” says Laurent Morel, head of equity capital markets at Société Générale. “The impact of the volatility will be very significant on the IPO market. It could be detrimental to the valuation of new stocks in the third and fourth quarters.”
