Nasdaq Sees IPOs Emerging If Market Holds Before U.S. Election

(Bloomberg) -- Nasdaq Inc. sees improving prospects for initial public offerings if stock markets hold up before the U.S. presidential election in November.

“We are starting to see new deals pop up,” Nelson Griggs, president of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “If the markets do hold -- which again today, we’re seeing some impressive performance -- there is a chance we’ll have a healthy IPO market that’s multisector.”

The exchange has hosted 15 IPOs since mid-March, mainly for health-care and biotech companies, and issuers in other industries are starting to hold roadshows. Warner Music Group Corp. this week set the terms for an IPO that would raise as much as $1.8 billion, and some companies that put their plans on hold in March are starting to re-emerge, Griggs said.

“The biggest challenge for an IPO is, can they go out and do a roadshow and talk confidently about upcoming quarters?” he said. “That’s not as important for health-care or biotech companies, so we have seen those go out and do very well.”

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