Nasdaq Sees Asian IPO Pipeline in Technology and Biotech Sectors

(Bloomberg) -- Nasdaq Inc. is expecting a positive 2017 for new listings of Asian technology and biotechnology companies, according to its chief operating officer.

Adena Friedman said that while the U.S. exchange company has seen about five initial public offerings this year from Asia, there could be more in the next few months. After a slow start, activity has improved in recent weeks, she said.

“We’ve got a pretty good pipeline going into 2017, particularly of technology and biotechnology companies coming out of Asia,” Friedman said in an interview with Bloomberg television on Friday.

Volatility and uncertainty kept the IPO market quiet in early 2016. Public offerings are beginning to pick up again, including in the technology sector. Hours before Friedman’s interview, Coupa Software Inc. listed its shares on Nasdaq, more than doubling in its trading debut and rising to a market value of $1.8 billion.

Technology and biotechnology companies including Line Corp. have completed $7.9 billion of first-time share sales globally this year, down from $16.4 billion during the same period in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. U.S. IPOs across industries have fallen by nearly half to $18.4 billion, the data show.

Friedman also said that Nasdaq is “very pleased” with its acquisition of options exchange operator International Securities Exchange Inc., which it bought for $1.1 billion. Integration following the June purchase “is going extremely well for us,” she said. The exchange sector has seen several M&A deals this year, most notably CBOE Holdings Inc.’s roughly $3 billion deal to acquire Bats Global Markets Inc.

--With assistance from Andy Clarke Ben Scent and Annie Massa To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Tan in Singapore at atan17@bloomberg.net, Yvonne Man in Hong Kong at yman9@bloomberg.net, Ramy Inocencio in New York at rinocencio@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert