Good forecast for capital

I often ask the many respect­ed busi­ness lead­ers who vis­it the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for their company’s IPO (ini­tial pub­lic offer­ing) how they plan to use the cap­i­tal raised.

An IPO is, after all, a sem­i­nal moment in the his­to­ry of each and every com­pa­ny that becomes part of the glob­al cap­i­tal mar­kets.

The answer, irre­spec­tive of indus­try or size of com­pa­ny, near­ly always includes some com­bi­na­tion of invest­ment in peo­ple, cap­i­tal assets, and research and devel­op­ment.

This invest­ment often takes the form of real­is­ing strate­gic objec­tives, such as devel­op­ing new tech­nolo­gies or prod­ucts, expand­ing into new loca­tions and hir­ing new tal­ent in key areas of the com­pa­ny in order to grow.

The health of glob­al mar­kets pro­vides an impor­tant indi­ca­tion of con­tin­ued eco­nom­ic growth and greater oppor­tu­ni­ties for investor par­tic­i­pa­tion.

It has been a strong year for glob­al equi­ty cap­i­tal mar­kets in terms of over­all pub­lic com­pa­ny list­ings, cap­i­tal raised and investor par­tic­i­pa­tion

It is, there­fore, an encour­ag­ing sign for the glob­al econ­o­my that 2014 has been a strong year for glob­al equi­ty cap­i­tal mar­kets in terms of over­all pub­lic com­pa­ny list­ings, cap­i­tal raised and investor par­tic­i­pa­tion.

By the begin­ning of Novem­ber, the top ten stock exchanges had host­ed more than 720 IPOs, rais­ing a total of approx­i­mate­ly $175.6 bil­lion, led by NYSE Group with $62.6 bil­lion raised.

That’s already more than the $175.4 bil­lion raised by the top ten in 2013.

The JOBS (Jump­start Our Busi­ness Star­tups) Act in the Unit­ed States, intend­ed to encour­age fund­ing of small busi­ness­es, was a con­tribut­ing fac­tor, help­ing 215 com­pa­nies around the world lever­age the deep­est and most liq­uid pub­lic mar­ket through reduced bar­ri­ers and com­plex­i­ty.

The NYSE was a lead­ing advo­cate and thought leader for the Act and we are thrilled with its pos­i­tive impact.

Look­ing ahead to 2015, we expect anoth­er strong year for glob­al equi­ty cap­i­tal mar­kets, with tech­nol­o­gy, finan­cials and ener­gy con­tin­u­ing to be key dri­vers.

From a reg­u­la­to­ry per­spec­tive, dis­cus­sions are tak­ing place in major mar­kets on the way stocks are trad­ed, as well as the way tech­nol­o­gy and reg­u­la­tions are impact­ing mar­kets.

The NYSE has tak­en a lead­er­ship role in these dis­cus­sions, with a focus on reduc­ing the com­plex­i­ty of the US equi­ty mar­ket, which we believe will bet­ter ensure that a company’s stock trades in the most fair, effi­cient and trans­par­ent man­ner pos­si­ble.

We’ve tak­en mea­sures uni­lat­er­al­ly to begin reduc­ing com­plex­i­ty, includ­ing reduc­ing the num­ber of order types, tech­nol­o­gy plat­forms and unique pro­to­cols that we offer to cus­tomers.

In addi­tion to act­ing on our own, we are work­ing with our fel­low exchanges, reg­u­la­tors and mar­ket par­tic­i­pants to find the most impact­ful ways to enhance mar­ket qual­i­ty, which in turn increas­es investor con­fi­dence and cre­ates a more attrac­tive envi­ron­ment for the world’s com­pa­nies to raise cap­i­tal.

After all, these are their mar­kets – a fact that we at NYSE Group are proud to uphold and rep­re­sent on behalf of our near­ly 2,400 list­ed com­pa­nies, as well as all those who con­tribute to the cap­i­tal for­ma­tion process.