This could be the year that venture-backed companies start to get their IPO groove back.
Last year marked the second consecutive year of unusually low numbers of initial public offerings launched by companies owned by venture-capital firms. There were eight such IPOs in 2009, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource. That amounts to just 15% of the 54 deals that priced, according to Dealogic. The proportion of venture IPOs could be skewed by the small number of deals last year as 2010 is being forecast as a much larger year for new issuance overall.
"Valuations have been getting better, and that's been making that [IPO] channel more attractive [to issuers] than it's been in a long time," says Scott Gehsmann, a global capital-markets partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Market Thaws for Venture IPOs - WSJ.com
Author: LYNN COWAN
