Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in 2019

In 2019, mega Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of Lyft and Uber failed to meet the expectations. Despite these problems, this year’s IPOs were not as bad as it could have been, which is good news.

Moreover, an index that tracks initial public offerings outperformed the S&P 500 index in what could be a historic year for stocks.

Renaissance Capital’s IPO index, a basket of newly public companies, increased by 33% in 2019. For example, this year S&P 500 index rose 29%.

It is worth mentioning that more than half of newly listed companies were trading above their issue price at the end of the year. Based on the information, provided by the Renaissance Capital in comparison with 2018, this number jumped by 40%.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index achieved a similar result as in 2013, when the index gained 29.6%. However, it still has the chance to reach the best result in more than 20 years. The S&P 500 should increase by at least 29.6% in 2019 to repeat the record. However, if it is going to surpass this result, it will break the record which dates back to 1997.

WeWork and other IPOs

This year, WeWork became one of the biggest disappointments as it was unable to make it to an IPO. Moreover, this failed IPO once again reminded those sky-high valuations not always translating to public markets.

Lyft and Uber also failed to live up to the expectations even though both of them are among the biggest three listings in 2019. Uber and Lyft were criticized for the lack of a clear path regarding profitability.

In 2020, several famous companies, including Airbnb and DoorDash, have the intention to go public. However, these companies and especially their management should remember the mistakes of other companies.

Beyond Meat was the best performing consumer name as its shares jumped 200%.