Louis Lehot Analyzes U.S. IPO Market Trends and Public Market Outlook

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Louis Lehot is featured in the Daily Journal‘s Capital & Counsel newsletter offering insights on the current state of the U.S. IPO market and the factors influencing companies’ routes to going public.

“The IPO count and the IPO market are telling two different stories,” Lehot observed. “The window is open for the largest companies and closed for the rest,” he said. “A handful of mega-listings are carrying the totals, and each cohort has to trade well for the next one to get out.”

Lehot also addressed the implications of upcoming IPOs by AI companies, noting that their performance could “validate private valuations, give sponsors another exit route and lift risk appetite across the board.” However, he cautioned, “one generational listing tells you little about the 900-plus other private companies worth a billion dollars or more.”

“The pressure from the investor side is enormous,” Lehot added. “Sponsors are sitting on more than 13,500 U.S. portfolio companies, nearly a third of them held longer than six years, and at the current pace it would take about nine years to clear that backlog.”