Long-term IPO watchers will note a familiar name is returning to public trading today. Ingram Micro began trading Thursday at the NYSE under the symbol INGM, surging as much as 17% from its $22 initial public offering price . This is one of the largest distributors of technology products in the world by revenue ($48 billion), with operations in 57 countries. We’re talking about desktop PCs, notebooks, printers, peripherals, smartphones as well as software products. It traded on the NYSE for many years, before it was acquired and taken private in 2016 by Tianjin Tianhai Investment Company, a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, for $38.90 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $6 billion. It was then acquired by preivate equity firm Platinum Equity in 2021. Imgram sold 18.6 million shares at $22, just above the midpoint of the $20-$23 price range. That’s a capital raise of $409 million. At a total market valuation of $5.1 billion, the company sold about 8% of the total equity, a fairly small float (most tech companies float 10%-15%). Still no signs of IPO life, despite record highs for stocks Unfortunately, Ingram is not going to change the IPO dynamic. This is the third consecutive year where the amount raised in IPOs fell below historic averages. So far, 126 IPOs have raised $28.1 billion in 2024. Pre-covid, a normal year would see roughly $50 billion raised. IPOs: Total raised 2024 YTD: $28.1 billion 2023: $19.4 billion 2022: $7.7 billion 2021: $142 billion (record) 2020: $78 billion 2019: $46 billion 2018: $47 billion Source: Renaissance Capital Recent IPOs have done well With the major indexes at new highs, you can’t blame the stock market for the lack of big IPOs. Large IPOs (over $200 million) have been few and far between the past few months, but those that have come public, like early childhood education provider KinderCare Learnings , aerospace engine maintenance provider StandardAero and diversified retail REIT FrontView are all trading above their initial offering prices. Recent large IPOs (amount raised, and gain from IPO price) KinderCare $576 m. +20.7% StandardAero $1.4 b. +31% FrontView REIT $251 m. + 3.3% Source: Renaissance Capital Still a valuation problem At least for technology IPOs, the problem remains valuations. In 2021, private capital was able to raise record funding for tech companies, which became benchmarks for private valuations. Unfortunately, there were clear indications the public markets were not willing to pay those high valuations. “Public investors are not willing to pay 2021 valuations,” Matt Kennedy from Renaissance Capital told me. “The VC (venture capital) people are still happy to keep funding the companies.” “Many companies are still saying, “We have enough cash and enough funding, let’s wait until 2025.” “AI companies are raising hundreds of millions of dollars, and they are going to have to find some way to either get acquired or go public.” The good news: the pipeline is building There are still candidates out there. HPS Investment Partners, a big private credit manager, was often mentioned as an IPO candidate but there are reports BlackRock and others may be considering an outright purchase. Better known are other IPO candidates, including StubHub and SeatGeek. Both have filed to go public confidentially, meaning they are not yet revealing financial data to the public. Another company, Pony.ai, a developer of autonomous vehicle systems for robotaxis in China, also filed to go public next week. A similar self-driving China startup, WeRide, has also filed to go public and may price late Thursday. Still, don’t hold your breath. Any large IPOs will likely wait until after the election, Kennedy tells me. That leaves a narrow window immediately after Thanksgiving and into the first week or two of December for any remaining deals in 2024.