Russia-Ukraine conflict to curb IPO market 

RIYADH: Europe and US markets for initial public offerings have been effectively shut amid Russia’s military attack on Ukraine.

This comes ahead of what was expected to be a busy March for bankers after a slow start to the year, Bloomberg reported.

Thyssenkrupp AG’s electrolysis plant business Nucera, Eni SpA’s renewables division Plenitude and Olam International’s food unit were among the large IPOs set to kick off in the coming months in Europe. 

Escalating conflict in Ukraine along with struggle to sell shares given the heightened market volatility triggered by tightening monetary policy hinders the plan to go for big offerings in the next few weeks, according to Bloomberg.

The US IPO market has already been shuttered for most of the year for all, except for smallest deals after the S&P 500 and other benchmarks sold off at the start of 2022. 

New York stock offerings had been off to their slowest start since the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2009.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has sent the Cboe Volatility Index up 22 percent on Thursday to its highest level in a month. The index is a measure of risk appetite closely watched by investment bankers.

“If this situation lingers for more than a few days, we may see a first quarter with probably the shallowest volume of IPOs that we have seen in the past several years,”  MKM analyst Rohit Kulkarni said in an interview. 

Special purpose acquisition companies have proven to be the only type of listings able to consistently reach New York exchanges, as they don’t rely on broader market sentiment, Tuttle Capital Management chief executive officer Matthew Tuttle said in an interview this week.