IPO market hits slope

NEWS The global IPO market has experienced a sharp drop of 61 per cent this year with only 737 private companies managing to raise $8.9bn in venture capital. Research, by Dealogic, a market data analyst company, found only $60bn in total was raised through 545 deals during the first nine months of 2001 compared to 1,285 deals totalling $157bn in the same period last year. The analyst house said the worsening economic climate and the 11 September attacks on America are the main reasons for the decline. VentureWire, capital markets information site, has also released figures for the US venture capital investment for the second quarter of 2001. A total of 737 private companies managed to raise $8.9bn in venture capital down from last year's second-quarter total of 1,898 companies raising $27.9bn. VentureWire said the numbers are down by over 50 per cent from totals of 3,554 deals worth $52.9bn in 2000. The results are based on daily investment totals recorded by VentureWire and published in the VentureWire Index (VWIX) which tracks the overall private equity investment daily.