IPO filings at fastest pace in 4 years

Houston Business Journal – by Cromwell Schubarth, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal

Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 2:56pm CDT

 

The pace of public offerings is picking up with this quarter’s IPO filings hitting the highest number since 2007.

The number of companies filing to go public is reportedly at the fastest pace this quarter since 2007.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that at least 720 companies have filed their IPO intentions in the past three months around the world, hoping to raise about $67 billion.

The latest Houston company to try for an IPO is PetroLogistics LP, a Houston propylene producer, which filed paperwork last week to raise as much as $600 million in a public offering. But another Houston company, oilfield equipment maker Stewart & Stevenson LLC Stewart & Stevenson LLC Latest from The Business Journals Stewart & Stevenson postpones IPOEquipment supplier SANA International to tap renewable energy marketStewart & Stevenson acquires Hunt Power Follow this company , recently said it would postpone its IPO, citing difficult market conditions.

Feeding the IPO market has been the successful IPO of LinkedIn Corp.LinkedIn Corp. Latest from The Business Journals IPO filings at fastest pace in four yearsLinkedIn shares jump on bullish ratingsMonster launches LinkedIn rival on Facebook Follow this company (NASDAQ:LNKD) last month, which saw shares that traded on the private market for $14.50 in 2010 sell for as much as $122.50 on its first day of public trading.

Still, the news service reported that there is skepticism about the IPO climate.

“Despite significant global activity, the market sentiment for deals now is tougher than what we’ve seen in a while,” Frank Maturo, co-head of Americas cash equity capital markets at Bank of America Corp. Bank of America Corp. Latest from The Business Journals Bank of America is paying for your museum visitBofA to donate 100 vacant properties in ClevelandIPO filings at fastest pace in four years Follow this company , told Bloomberg. “We are not seeing the IPO performance that the buy side would like and that is making the IPO market more challenging.”

A separate report earlier this month said that more than 80 percent of venture capitalists globally consider current IPO activity too sluggish to support a healthy VC industry.