WASHINGTON – This year is shaping up to be a good one for initial public offerings, as many companies want to go public and confidence levels are higher than last year, Nasdaq’s CEO Adena Friedman said on Friday.
Fifty-five companies moved forward on IPOs in the United States since the beginning of the year, compared with 20 in the same period last year, Nasdaq’s website shows.
The number of IPOs last year was the lowest since 2009 due to instability in the markets and politics around the world, a report by Pitchbook.com said.
Nasdaq NDAQ, +0.02% released what it called a blueprint to revitalize capital markets on Thursday. Nasdaq profits from companies who choose to list on their stock exchange, and so the trend toward companies getting plentiful funding while private works to their disadvantage.
Nasdaq called for reforms including tougher access to proxy process and lower taxes.
Although company executives are more hopeful, they are still wary of policy uncertainties, Friedman said. She spoke in an interview after meeting at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump has made business-friendly proposals such as cutting corporate tax to 15% and rolling back Dodd-Frank financial regulations, but these proposals would have to be passed by the Senate, where Republicans have to get Democrats’ approval to pass the bills.
The Volcker rule is too “draconian” and had “driven liquidity out of the market,” Friedman said. On the other hand, rules that served as guardrails to the financial system should be preserved, she said.
Published in conjunction with 