It’s been a tough time for equity investors, but the big names that everyone flocks to when they need to sell stock in a proper share offering are spoiled for choice.
So much so, that amid all the rights issues and other primary deals that – owing to new regulatory relaxation – no longer need pre-emptive rights, fatigue is setting in.
There is plenty of grumbling that companies are being woefully optimistic about the kind of investment case they need to put forward.
But if you’re big enough, flotations are also not much of a draw when there are surer bets elsewhere and because of all the time they still take up – even with the boost to return-on-time-invested that video conferencing can provide.
As a source at one big firm comments: “If we never had any more IPOs no one here would care.”