Stocks have nearly tripled from post-crisis lows, even after factoring in recent sell-offs. Merger and acquisition activity is at historic highs. But ECM has only been a minor beneficiary. The surge in secondary markets has boosted valuations, which in turn should make a move into public markets more attractive for private companies. However, IPO issuance on US exchanges is down roughly 50% in the first three quarters of the year, compared to the same period in 2014, as technology companies have

IFR: Blocks continue to be a fixture in the US ECM business. Tom, what is your current view on block trading? Obviously Blackstone did sell a large stake in Hilton in May in a deal that provoked a lot of comment in the financial markets in terms of how that was handled.   Tom Morrison, Blackstone: First of all, block trades certainly have increased in terms of frequency. From our perspective blocks enable us to execute a transaction or a monetisation in a very efficient timeframe. We are able to

IFR: Interestingly tech as a sector has taken a backseat to healthcare and some other sectors and there hasn’t been that many tech IPOs recently. When there has been some, we’ve seen some down rounds or situations where the public valuation of these companies has been lower than the most recent private funding round. At the same time we’ve seen very large private funding rounds by some of the so-called unicorns, such as Uber and the like. How do you see this disconnect between private and public

IFR: accommodative monetary policies have sustained a cyclical bull market across the capital markets. Stocks have nearly tripled from post-crisis lows even after factoring in the recent sell offs. Merger and acquisition activity is at historic highs and private companies have enjoyed unprecedented access to capital. Yet there are plenty of reasons for pause. Economic conditions globally are frail despite the ongoing recovery of the US. The reality of higher interest rates threatens to choke acc

Jim Cooney Bank of America Merrill Lynch Jim Cooney is a managing director in the Equity Capital Markets Americas Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and has been with the firm for 18 years. Cooney has sector responsibility for the firm’s healthcare clients, including the origination and execution of all equity and equity-linked transactions within these verticals.   Craig DeDomenico Stifel Craig DeDomenico is a managing director in Equity Capital Markets Origination for Stifel with responsib