Twelve deals are set to price the week of December 12 as companies rush to go public before the holidays, looking to raise at least $3.7 billion. Even excluding the US listing of Tel Aviv-listed Gazit-Globe (GZT), next week's eleven deals potentially make it the busiest week for US IPOs since November 2007, when 13 deals raised $2.5 billion the week of November 5, 2007. If at least 9 deals price next week, it will be the biggest week for US IPOs this year.
The hotly-anticipated offering from social gaming giant Zynga (ZNGA) headlines next week's IPOs. The San Francisco, CA-based company could raise as much as $1 billion, which would allow it to surpass Groupon (GRPN) as the largest Internet IPO since Google went public in 2004. At the midpoint of its $8.50 to $10.00 range, Zynga would command a market value of $8.3 billion on a fully diluted basis, making it one of the most valuable US listed Internet companies.
Energy companies have been particularly active recently; 7 of the 16 deals on the calendar this week and next are in the energy sector (44%). This compares to a 17% industry weighting over the last twelve months. Strong oil prices and recent and ongoing investor demand for yield oriented stocks (5 of the 7 are MLPs) have been a contributing factor to the year-end spike in energy IPO activity.
If all 16 deals currently on the US IPO calendar for the month of December price as planned, there will be 130 US IPOs in 2011, down 16% from 154 in 2010. Total proceeds raised would be $37.2 billion, down only 4% from $38.7 billion in 2010 despite General Motor's (GM) record $15 billion offering in December 2010. Average deal size would be up 14% to $286 million.
