IPO bankers will not remember 2012 fondly. The market has been dismal: so far this year $119bn has been raised in 768 initial public offerings, down from $170bn in 1,225 IPOs in 2011. That has forced the bankers to crowd on to those flotations that have been available: the average number of bookrunners on global deals worth more than $500m is up from four to six. And the year’s largest and most glitzy IPO turned out to be a disaster. Facebook shares are still 30 per cent below their float price and Morgan Stanley has been fined $5m for its conduct during the IPO.
2012年應不會給操作首次公開發行(IPO)的銀行家們留下太美好的回憶。這一年市場一直表現欠佳：迄今為止，今年共有768宗IPO，融資總額達1190億美元，都不如去年。2011年共有1225宗IPO，融資總額達1700億美元。這迫使銀行家們蜂擁爭奪有限的IPO機會：在全球融資規模高于5億美元的IPO中，平均每一宗的賬簿管理人數量從4家增至6家。今年規模最大、最具轟動效應的IPO則成了一場災難。Facebook的股價至今仍比發行價低30%，摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)則因其在此次IPO中的違規行為被罰款500萬美元。