This is exchanges at Goldman Sachs, where we discuss developments currently shaping markets, industries, and the global economy. I'm Allison Nathan from Goldman Sachs research, creator and editor of the firm's top of my report,

which focuses on macroeconomic issues on the minds of our clients and I'm

excited to be bringing the top of mind at Goldman Sachs podcast to listeners of exchanges. Going forward for all of those loyal subscribers to the top of mind feed,

we'll be publishing the podcast about once a month

as part of the exchanges feed,

so please be sure to subscribe.

In this episode, we're focusing on a topic we think will resonate with

listeners of both podcasts, the state of the IPO market.

Amid the economic and market roller coaster of

2020, the IPO market stood out, standing shut in the first part of the year

as pandemic uncertainty set in, only to open up with gusto in the second half of

2020 even as risks around the virus and its economic impact remained high. The result was more than 300 billion dollars of

global IPO issuance including record-breaking issuance of 170 billion in the

US. These figures were all the more notable given the TEPID IPO market only a couple of years ago.

Companies were staying private for longer aided by a surge in the availability of venture capital and

private equity capital. In 2019 the number of US publicly traded companies

was at one of its lowest levels in two decades.

This renewed focus on public markets

has raised the question of whether the era of staying private for longer

is truly behind us, especially as companies are increasingly receiving higher

public valuations. Indeed, those lofty valuations have even begun to raise concerns of a bubble in public markets.

And adding to bubble concerns is the other exceptional feature of the recent IPO surge.

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