An initial public offering, more commonly referred to as an IPO, is the process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance, therefore becoming a public company. This process – which requires many professionals, including underwriters, outside counsel, and accounting firms – can be lengthy and the costs can be substantial, but then again, so can the profits.
Audit Analytics covers the IPO market regularly, providing quarterly updates on auditor market share and various stats, including the number of IPOs and the amount raised. However, we recently received a request to shine some further light on IPO proceeds.
IPO proceeds are calculated by multiplying the IPO price by the amount of IPO shares. As one would imagine, there’s a lot involved in pricing an IPO; various factors influence an IPO’s valuation including demand, industry comparables, growth prospects, and the company’s narrative.
Gross Proceeds
Between 2015 and 2019, there were 1,042 IPOs that, in aggregate, raised just under $240 billion.
The table below lists the top ten IPOs during this time period, with proceeds ranging between $2.3B and $9.3B. The average amount of proceeds related to an IPO during these five years was about $230M.
Auditor Market Share
From 2015-2019, the Big Four accounted for 78% of gross IPO proceeds:
- EY: 27%
- PwC: 23%
- Deloitte: 16%
- KPMG: 12%
Following closely behind, Withum accounted for 7% of aggregate IPO proceeds, with Marcum (6%), Grant Thornton (2%), BDO (1%), Moss Adams (1%) and RSM (1%) rounding out the top ten firms. Together, these ten firms account for 96% of all IPO proceeds; 74 firms share the remaining 4%.
Industry
As shown, IPOs in the Services sector raked in the highest gross proceeds, totaling $75.3 billion in five years. This should not come as any surprise, as big-name IPOs including Uber [UBER], Slack [WORK], Snap [SNAP], Lyft [LYFT], and Pinterest [PINS] fall in this category.
Blank checks, which comprised 10% of all IPOs during this time, accumulated a combined total of $21.2 billion. In 2019, 19% of total gross proceeds for all IPOs came from blank check IPOs, contributing nearly $11.5 billion to the overall total of $63.0 billion.
A blank check company has no established business plan or operations and can serve as a vessel to engage in a merger or acquisition with an unidentified company, entity, or other person. For more insight into blank check IPOs and SPACs, please see our previous analysis.
For more information about Audit Analytics or this analysis, please contact us.
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