A record $162.4 billion has been raised by more than 600 issuers in 2021, the most ever at this point in the year. These are important liquidity events and creators of new high net worth individuals.

The global market for initial public offerings – important liquidity events that wealth managers track – is set for a record quarter, according to Bloomberg. The report also noted that the IPO surge has taken place even as doubts grow about launches of what are called special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) – aka blank-check firms.

A record $162.4 billion has been raised by more than 600 issuers in 2021, the most ever at this point in the year, data from the news service shows. SPACs account for half of the proceeds. In comparison, just $37 billion was raised in the first three months of 2020.

Very loose monetary policy and strong – to an extent – equity markets have encouraged the IPO trend. The tumult caused by lockdowns to fight COVID-19 has also encouraged investors to think that there will be big opportunities for M&A deals in coming months. The report said, however, that doubts about SPACs are setting in as long-dated bond yields rise amid concerns about inflation. 

As reported in January, IPOs caught the headlines in 2020 - not always for positive reasons - with total values rising in the US and Hong Kong. Figures show how the COVID-19 pandemic did not knock these liquidity events down dramatically.

Within Hong Kong, total funds raised by IPOs in 2020 reached HK$397.7 billion ($51.3 billion), according to figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Separately, in the US, some $78.2 billion in new cash was raised from such stock market flotations - 69 per cent higher than the amount raised during the prior year. (Source: Integrity Research Associates.)

There have been problems. Ant Group, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, had been slated to have its $34 billion IPO in early November 2020 in what would have been the world’s largest share float ever. However, investors were stunned when the IPO was pulled only a few days prior to the event. (Reports said that Ant Group’s rapid lending growth rattled regulators. In just one year, Ant Group had written loans to half a billion people in China which accounted for nearly a fifth of the country’s outstanding short-term consumer debt as of June.)