NYSE Group President Lynn Martin isn’t worried about the impact companies staying private longer than ever is having on the public markets — to the contrary, she considers it “a good thing.”
“It allows them to really refine their strategy, to build their business, to identify what they want to be for their next chapter,” Martin said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit. Even as competitors like Nasdaq start to make pre-IPO companies part of their business model — allowing regular investors to buy shares in pre-IPO companies — NYSE has largely stayed out of the fray.
CEOs and companies have two primary considerations, she continued. “Ultimately they want to reward their employees,” Martin said. “They want to reward their shareholders.”
There are signs that a years-long IPO drought is starting to give way, as CEOs and investors sense enthusiasm from public-market investors to underwrite innovation and pressure from LPs to return capital, Semafor has reported. “It’s one of those open, shut, open, shut, situations,” Martin said of the IPO market. An ongoing government shutdown was a “minor speed bump,” she added.