Has the IPO market become an unfair place?

Send us Fan MailWith record amounts of issuance in the equity capital markets, dealers and issuers have become increasingly reliant upon cornerstone investors to ensure their deals get done. A cornerstone investor — one that commits to a large chunk of stock in an IPO before book building begins in exchange for a full allocation of shares — should bring several benefits to a new listing by removing some of the underwriting risk, encouraging other investors to join the deal and in some cases helping the stock to perform once it has been priced. But many market participants have complained that you can have too much of a good thing. Plenty of IPOs are being cancelled, postponed or are bombing in the secondary market regardless of cornerstone participation. Yet that is causing bookrunners to sign up ever more cornerstones in deals where they previously would not have been required. This, the critics say, prevents true price discovery, makes stocks illiquid and is inherently unfair, among other bellyaches. On this week’s podcast, we discuss the extent of the problem, what can be done about it and what sort of deals need and could do without cornerstone buyers.