After a shaky start to the year, US stocks were up 4% at the time we convened and low-volatility throughout the preceding months highlighted investor willingness to look beyond collapsing oil prices, slowing Chinese growth, Brexit, and the surprises of US politics. Yet large swaths of the equity capital markets failed to participate. IPOs, in particular, had raised just US$10bn, anaemic in any year and in stark contrast to the US$25bn-plus venture capitalists poured into tech unicorns and other

IFR: Brett, you may have some ideas. Your firm has certainly been impacted by this trend.   Paschke: There is no question that there is significant appeal to the seller – the price certainty, the quick execution, and not having to publicly announce – and some of the ways blocks have been executed have been tremendous. It’s been a huge development over the last couple of years in particular. There is impact to the ecosystem though, that is maybe now just starting to [take effect]. Just follow me

IFR: Brett, on the one hand, we are saying the JOBS Act has been a success but on the other, there’s not been many IPOs this year. Is there much appetite for further IPO reform?   Paschke: It’s fun hearing it from a four or five-year perspective, because I was involved with the task force that helped make the recommendations that put the JOBS Act in place. The whole idea was about relieving pain points. One of the pain points for sure from the management team’s perspective is that when we were s

IFR: This is the fourth year we’ve held this US ECM roundtable, and the financial markets are seemingly challenged this time every year. In 2014, uncertainty surrounding China fuelled concerns about the sustainability of global economic growth. Last year, investor nervousness surrounding highly levered companies and the poor performance of IPOs began to hurt issuance. Indeed, those concerns continue to cloud the outlook. Now after a period of market tranquillity, equity capital markets face rene

Ashley Delp Walker Jefferies Delp Walker is joint head of Americas ECM and global head of equity syndicate at Jefferies, which she joined in 2010. Delp Walker has over 20 years of capital markets experience, leading over 500 equity transactions raising in excess of US$125bn. She joined Jefferies following 14 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, 12 of which were in ECM.    Nelson Griggs Nasdaq Griggs is executive vice-president of listing services where he oversees Nasdaq’s new listings and ca