U.S. IPO Activity in 2013 on Track for Highest Level in 9 Years

me by phone. The seven San Diego IPOs accounted for more than half of 13 life sciences deals in the West, according to EY.

Healthcare was the most active sector for IPO activity, with 52 companies raising a total of more than $8.5 billion, according to Renaissance Capital. While there has been a recent slowdown in life sciences IPOs, Regnier says he believes IPO activity will resume following the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco next month.

EY also maintains that overall IPO activity should remain strong in 2014, with a backlog of 76 deals in the IPO pipeline carrying over for a strong start in the New Year. “Investors have had the opportunity to engage with a variety of companies in the pipeline and their appetite for risk has returned,” said Jackie Kelley, an EY partner in Irvine, CA, who leads the firm’s IPO advisory services in the Americas. “VC-backed companies came back to market and PE-backed IPOs will continue to push into 2014.”

Looking deeper into 2014, EY says the future looks bright, with more companies in Europe, the Middle East, and South America looking to list on the U.S. markets—attracted by high valuations and good post-IPO performances over the past year.

“IPOs in 2014 will be a combination of household names, as well as disruptive, innovative companies,” Kelley says. “The backlog of PE-backed IPOs will continue to push into 2014 and companies blurred by sector convergence will drive market activity, all making for another exciting year.”

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.