Coming off what was viewed as a weak year for initial public offerings, a January survey of capital markets executives conducted by BDO USA L.L.P. provides a tempered, but optimistic, outlook for 2013.
Investment bankers surveyed by BDO are predicting a 6 percent increase in the number of U.S. IPOs and project those offerings will average about $250 million apiece, which would add up to about $34 billion in total proceeds on U.S. exchanges.
With the exception of the Facebook Inc. offering, which garnered about a third of all U.S. IPO proceeds in 2012, the projections would indicate a 28 percent increase in annual proceeds.
“The consensus seems to be that there is some optimism in the growth of the IPO market,” said Brian J. Eccleston, a partner in BDO”™s capital markets practice and one of the report”™s authors. He said an increase in public offerings would in turn “free up capital in private equity” for future deals.
In an effort to expand outreach to private equity firms interspersed around Fairfield County, BDO recently opened an office in downtown Stamford.
The new office will be led by Eccleston and Joseph A. Capparelli, a managing partner with BDO.
“Stamford represents a very nice opportunity for us” and is “a further extension of our New York City presence,” Eccleston said. The new location helps BDO “to get closer to where we see a lot of opportunity ”“ particularly in private equity.”
There are currently about 15 full-time employees working out of the Stamford office. Capparelli said BDO would draw from its employees based in Westchester County, N.Y., or New York City as needed on a temporary or permanent basis.
“We”™re starting with the staff we had in Westchester and expanding as we see fit,” Capparelli said. He said the new office allows BDO to better serve existing clients in Westchester and Fairfield counties and to market to potential new clients.
“We intend to grow this office,” he said.
In addition to working with financial services clients, BDO”™s Stamford office staff will focus on a variety of industries, including retail, consumer products, real estate, manufacturing and distribution, technology, health care, biosciences, insurance and nonprofits, Eccleston said.
With a footprint in about 120 countries, Eccleston said BDO is well-positioned to work with companies in the Fairfield County area that have operations outside the U.S. or do business with international clients.
“We”™re really the front edge of a much larger presence we can bring to anyone here in Stamford,” he said.
[Editor’s note: This article was updated after an initial version was posted Jan. 7. A version of this article appeared in the Feb. 4 print edition of the Fairfield County Business Journal.]
