Companies have more options to go public now than ever before, says New York Stock Exchange vice-chairman and chief commercial officer John Tuttle.
“There are more pathways to the public markets that have been really created or, or resuscitated in the past few years than in the preceding few decades,” Tuttle told Yahoo Finance’s the First Trade.
“If you look at an IPO, a direct listing, a SPAC, a direct listing 2.0— the IPO with the capital raise— all of them are new pathways to the public markets,” he added.
On Wednesday, data mining company Palantir (PLTR) and work management software firm Asana (ASAN) were both set to go public via direct listings.
The last two notable companies to go public via a direct listing over the last couple of years are Slack (WORK) and Spotify (SPOT).
Despite a year hit with a pandemic and the uncertainty of elections, the public debut market is hotter than ever.
“We thought 2020 was going to be a bit quieter because of the crisis in the first half of the year, and of course the election in the back half of year. But it’s turned out to be one of the busiest periods in history, “ said Tuttle.
“August was our busiest August in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. Today we’re wrapping up the busiest month in the history of the New York Stock Exchange,” he added.
He says “a strong pipeline of deals” are looking to come out to market between now and the election, as well as post election.
“November, December and the first quarter are continuing to line up to be busy months,” said Tuttle.