Wall Street banks have started to cut the prices of initial public offerings after WeWork’s botched debut sent a shockwave through the US market for new listings.
So far in the fourth quarter, three in every four IPOs have priced below the midpoint of the range announced by underwriters, according to Dealogic data. That is a big increase from an average of less than one in three, or 31 per cent, over the first nine months of the year.
The data suggest that banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, which guide companies on to the public markets, have responded to fund managers’ demands for better deals, following a string of high-profile flops this year.