U.S. IPOs Are ‘on Top Again,’ Renaissance Capital Reports

Initial public offering issuance in the United States has surged ahead of other nations’ IPOs so far in 2011, even moving ahead of the Asia-Pacific region, Renaissance Capital reported Wednesday.

In an article on its website titled “U.S. IPOs on Top Again,” the Greenwich, Conn.-based IPO research firm said the United States has taken the top perch due to the increasing quality and growth potential of U.S. IPOs relative to Asia-Pacific offerings and the broad underperformance of Asia’s equity markets.

U.S. IPO momentum is also building with a pipeline of high-profile deals, Renaissance said, noting that so far this year there have been 24 IPOs in the United States, an 85% increase from the 13 seen in the first month and a half last year.

“These IPOs raised $8.1 billion, up materially from $1.9 billion last year, in part due to multi-billion offerings from Nielsen (NLSN) and Kinder Morgan (KMI),” Renaissance said. “After strong IPO issuance in November and December, the IPO market seems to be sustaining the momentum seen at the end of 2010. These are signs that the IPO market is back to normal levels of issuance that is expected in a growing economy.”

Key U.S. IPO takeaways, according to Renaissance Capital’s research:

• US IPO activity is up significantly year-over-year and besting the rest of the world
• Chinese issuance is down due to deteriorating issuer quality and China growth concerns
• The buy-side stared down private equity IPO backers in 2010; now valuations are reasonable
• Tech stocks are performing well due to fundamental quality and growth prospects
• High-profile names are coming (HCA, Toys "R" Us, LinkedIn, Skype, Freescale, Pandora)

Read about the frozen pipeline of U.S. finance-sector IPOs as reported last summer by Renaissance at AdvisorOne.com.