Early optimism and momentum, but will there be a back half
bias?
We have seen calendar year 2020 start with a burst of energy
from potential issuers and financial advisers for IPOs with
proposed listing dates in the first half of 2020. This includes a
continuation of foreign entities interested in listing on ASX, in
particular from the United States and New Zealand. This momentum
has continued and is a welcome start given that the IPO window
tends to benefit from broad market confidence to open and remain
open. It will be interesting to see the impact of what may continue
to be a complex macro environment as a result of Brexit, the COVID
-19 virus, bushfires and floods, and whether this will cause some
deals to pause as parties draw breath. Given the breadth of
industries for potential IPO candidates, we are cautiously
optimistic that the bias to the latter part of the calendar year
that has been evident over the last few years will not
continue.
