By Echo Wang, Tatiana Bautzer and Saeed Azhar
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investment bankers are gearing up for a pickup in dealmaking activity in global equity capital markets this year, buoyed by a promising pipeline of anticipated initial public offerings of several high-profile companies.
Liquefied producer Venture Global, privately held medical supply giant Medline, and cybersecurity company Sailpoint, backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, are expected to headline a crowded line-up of stock market flotations in the first half of 2025, according to people familiar with the matter.
An increase in capital markets activity, driven by improving economic confidence, is expected to be a major boon for several of these private equity-backed companies.
Private equity firms have been struggling to sell or list portfolio companies over the past two years due to high interest rates and volatile stock markets that put a chill on dealmaking.
“Many of the companies owned by private equity firms have become sizeable,” said Arnaud Blanchard, global co-head of equity capital markets for Morgan Stanley (NYSE:). “Sponsors know it may take a while to complete a full exit, so they are becoming active now, early in the cycle.”
Other buzzy names that could potentially go public in the U.S. this year include the likes of Swedish payments firm Klarna, artificial intelligence cloud platform CoreWeave, and financial technology firm Chime, which confidentially submitted paperwork for its flotation in December, the sources said.
The largest private equity firms have become more bullish about IPOs of their portfolio companies in recent months.