Insurance IPO activity has been increasing in the first half of 2024, potentially encouraging more companies to consider IPOs as they could now achieve higher valuations compared to last year, according to Stonybrook Capital.
Several private equity-backed retail brokers are currently preparing to go public, including Acrisure, Alliant, Howden, and Hub.
Stonybrook highlighted, “On June 24th, 2024, The Woodlands formally filed their S-1 for a New York IPO to go public under the ticker “TWFG”.
“In addition, global stock markets have recorded the best first-quarter performance in the past 5-years, and both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index reached record highs in early 2024.”
In contrast, US IPO activity has declined over the past two years. In 2023, US IPOs (excluding SPACs) saw an 86.9% drop in deal value compared to 2021, while SPACs declined even more sharply.
However, traditional IPOs showed strong growth in 2023 compared to 2022. The S&P 500 index rebounded strongly in 2023 after a challenging 2022, and overall, the market exhibited an upward price trend throughout the year.
In 2023, a total of $447 billion was raised for private equity (including growth funds) across 440 funds, matching pre-COVID levels.
Although the total amount of money raised in 2023 was consistent with the previous year, the number of deals decreased, suggesting that each deal was larger in scale.
