Contact: Melinda Loew
Deloitte
Media and Communications
02 9322 7146

Contact: Steve Woosnam
Deloitte
Partner, Deloitte Corporate Finance
+61 (2) 9322 7531

IPO activity dropped sharply in the three months to the end of March 2006, according to the latest quarterly IPO Report by Deloitte Corporate Finance.

The report says 22 IPOs with a combined capital raising of $165 million were expected to list in the March quarter by the time it draws to a close this week.

This compares to 31 IPOs that raised $1.64 billion in the March 2005 quarter, which was boosted by the $1 billion float of Babcock and Brown Capital.

Deloitte Corporate Finance Partner, Mr Steve Woosnam, said the first quarter of the calendar year was a traditionally a period of lower activity.

"This year has been particularly quiet, but there are no fundamental factors – it’s simply a timing issue," Mr Woosnam said.

"For example, if the upcoming $1 billion IPO of Dyno Nobel had listed a fortnight earlier the figures for the March 06 quarter would have looked very different."

Mr Woosnam said Dyno Nobel and the anticipated mid-year IPO of Snowy Hydro, expected to raise up to $3 billion, were indicative of the continued strength of the IPO market.

"These are part of a healthy pipeline of IPOs in the coming months, which is expected to culminate towards the end of 2006 with the record-breaking Telstra 3 IPO," he said.

Calendar year 2005 produced 172 IPOs, raising a record $15.2 billion, up from 170 IPOs raising a total of $9.4 billion in the previous year.

 

Please refer to the attached press release for more ...