IPOs surge to highest point in years

NEW YORK – There’s a billion-dollar side benefit to Wall Street’s fourth-quarter march into record territory – 2006 looks to be one of the best years for initial public offerings since the end of the dot-com boom.

With $8 billion of deals, last month was the biggest for IPOs since June 2001, according to data provided by Dealogic, a market analysis company. It also was the best November since 1999, when technology stocks roared into the public markets.

There have been 172 IPOs so far in 2006 on the Nasdaq Stock Market and New York Stock Exchange, compared with 199 at the same point last year, according to Dealogic. However, the amount of money raised because of the robust stock markets has risen 4 percent to $40.1 billion so far this year from $38.6 billion in all of 2005.

The trend is widely expected to continue, with investors seeing a varied crop of companies looking to float stock, observers said. Small to mid-cap growth companies are expected to be the biggest group pursuing IPOs this month and into early next year, and those have traditionally shown the best performance.

“If we have this kind of economy that is taking a Goldilocks shape, which is the Federal Reserve warning but not raising rates, you’re going to see more interesting IPOs and more growth companies,” said Kathleen Smith, a principal at Renaissance Capital.