We saw renewed investor appetite for initial public offerings coming out of the summer break. The U.S. IPO market experienced two of the most active months for IPOs in September and October and Nasdaq was pleased to welcome 30 IPOs to our market in the last two months.
Technology Takeover
Since Labor Day, we saw 11 technology companies come to market, all of which listed on Nasdaq, bringing our market share in the sector to 86% year-to-date. Many of those public debuts received a warm reception from investors, which has increased optimism for high growth tech company initial public offerings.
Notable deals include hyperconverged infrastructure provider Nutanix (Nasdaq: NTNX), the year’s largest U.S. venture-capital-backed tech deal. Joining Nutanix were a diverse group of enterprise cloud companies including procurement software provider Coupa Software (Nasdaq: COUP), accounting software company BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL), advertising technology firm The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD) and technology business management platform Apptio (Nasdaq: APTI). All five of these deals priced above their original marketed range and proceeded to have strong first day performances.
Also of note, software company Everbridge Inc. (Nasdaq: EVBG) became the second Massachusetts-based technology company to go public this year following on the heels of Acacia Communications (Nasdaq: ACIA), which made its market debut in May.
Energy’s Biggest U.S. IPO Year-to-Date
Extraction Oil & Gas (Nasdaq: XOG) marked the first exploration and production (E&P) company to go public in almost two years. The initial public offering on October 12 is the largest in the U.S. energy industry so far this year based on proceeds raised. Other energy new listings this fall on Nasdaq include oilfield services provider Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: TUSK), and frac sand company SmartSand (Nasdaq: SND). These deals are a great example of the momentum we continue to build in the sector.
Asia in Focus: Steady IPO Pipeline from China
Data analysis software provider Gridsum Holding (Nasdaq: GSUM) and data center leader GDS Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq: GDS) are among the recent China-based companies to join Nasdaq. Nasdaq Listings SVP Bob McCooey expects a handful of additional China-based IPOs to list on Nasdaq by end of year. As entrepreneurship in China remains strong, we expect to welcome 12 to 15 new listings from China in 2017.
Looking Ahead to 2017
Nasdaq has seen a pause in the listings pipeline due to last week’s U.S. presidential election and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Nasdaq President & COO Adena Friedman recently spoke to CNBC’s Squawk Box, commenting that earlier volatility in the year held people back from entering the markets, and companies are waiting until they know more about the Trump administration before moving forward with IPO plans. Trump’s pro-business rhetoric has helped to assuage markets and Friedman believes that investors will continue to react well as long as the undertones continue.
Nasdaq’s pipeline of anticipated IPOs includes German-based global hotel search platform trivago. Looking to 2017, an increasing number of companies with valuations over $1B will be expected to come out of the private market from a consumer and technology perspective. Nasdaq Listings EVP Nelson Griggs notes that 2017 looks ready to shape up to be a more active year for initial public offerings.
Watch Nelson Griggs discuss the 2017 tech IPO outlook here
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