2020 has been a historic year in many ways and when it comes to IPO activity, it is no different. This year, the world has seen the highest IPO capital raising activity in a decade, with USD 331 billion raised across 1,591 listings.

This growth in value is primarily due to a steady increase in the number of megadeals (valued at over USD 1 billion) over the last five years, driven by Mainland Chinese and US companies. Sino-US tensions, COVID-19 and the 2020 US elections have also significantly impacted activity and led to a number of major changes for key stock exchanges, which have contributed to a growing shift in the balance between cross-border and domestic listings, as key changes in certain jurisdictions are encouraging many to list closer to home.

Throughout the year, we have seen fluctuations in market activity, dictated by the global slowdown, as COVID-19 impacted both developed and emerging economies across the world in Q1 and Q2. The strong boost in IPO activity is accounted for by Q3 2020, when high market liquidity and the rebound of markets saw the volume of listings more than double as compared with Q2 2020.