US IPOs pace toward levels not seen since 2021
With Q2 earnings out of the way, US companies flooded into the US equity capital markets last week, with 16 deals totalling nearly US$7bn crowded into a holiday-shortened week.
Led by Swedish buy-now, pay-later provider Klarna’s US$1.27bn NYSE IPO, seven companies launched IPOs totalling US$3.7bn of capital. All are already oversubscribed and due to price in the week beginning September 8, which would mark the busiest week by deal number and volume since 2021, according to LSEG data.
Netskope, a venture-backed cybersecurity provider, is expected to launch its IPO as early as Monday morning, targeting a roughly US$800m raise at an US$8bn market capitalisation, people involved told IFR.
E-commerce expeditor Pattern Group, oilfield water management provider Waterbridge Infrastructure, and LB Pharmaceuticals are all poised to launch their IPOs, based on filing activity.
Seasoned corporations are also taking advantage of high share prices to raise money in the convertible bond market. Last week saw eight issuers raise a combined US$4.8bn from CBs – on number the busiest week since early 2024 and the second-busiest week of 2025 on volume.
Highlighting the opportunistic nature, six of the eight incorporated a capped-call to synthetically increase the effective conversion price.
“It is amazing how resilient the CB new issue market has been,” said one CB banker, pointing to the US$31bn of paper printed since the beginning of June. “There has been a lot of money flowing into convert funds.”
There was also unexpected follow-on and block activity, such as deals for dLocal and Dole. Uruguayan payments provider and Nasdaq-listed dLocal saw General Atlantic pare its stake via a US$191.25m secondary selldown. Global coordinators JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley wall-crossed investors ahead of a bookbuild overnight on Wednesday that priced 15m shares at US$12.75, the midpoint of the US$12.50–$13 marketing range.
Castle & Cooke and David Murdock pocketed a combined US$157.9m from a block sale of Dole on Wednesday, the former cashing out a position inherited from a merger with Total Produce in 2021. Murdock, who took Dole private in 2003, took the company public in 2009, and later reprivatised it in 2013, passed away in June at the age of 102.
Goldman Sachs was sole bookunner on the block sale of 11.9m Dole shares priced at US$13.25, the bottom of the US$13.25–$13.75 range marketed and a 10% discount to the US$14.73 last sale.
Having not committed enough capital, Goldman Sachs that same evening offloaded its purchase of 20m shares of Sotera Health at US$15.35, the lower-half of the US$15.20–$15.98 range marketed and a 3.7% discount to last sale on hefty 15 days’ trading volume. Selling shareholders Warburg Pincus and GTCR pared a portion of their 43.3% combined stake in the US$307m sale.