Deals & Deal Makers -- IPO Outlook: Variety Tops Menu as 2004 Opens Strongly; Range of Sectors Are Active As This Year's 17 Offerings Indicate Market Vitality
Dow Jones Newswires</br></br>NEW YORK -- Wall Street stock underwriters are taking a breakfast- buffet approach to the IPO market this year.</br></br>Last week marked the first big-volume push for initial public offerings of stock, with 11 deals raising $3.08 billion, according to data from Dealogic LLC in New York.</br></br>To date, there have been 17 IPOs, raising $3.73 billion. This time last year, there had been just one IPO, raising $26.3 million, according to Dealogic. The deals come from a range of industries, such as insurance, biotech, auto parts and retail. And this range of sectors is likely to continue throughout the year, assuming the economy and the markets continue to improve.</br></br>"In a broadly based strengthening economy that benefits a variety of sectors, you should have an IPO market with a diversity of sectors and names," said Marc Baum, managing director of Seaport Group, a broker- dealer in New York. Such diversity is also healthy, he said, given that "bubble" periods, such as the tech-stock boom of the 1990s, are often driven by momentum investors chasing a single sector.