After a year which featured lingering economic uncertainty, and underperformance from many popular IPOs, 2012 should see some exciting activity from the more than 200 companies hoping to go public. Here are 24/7 Wall St.'s picks for the top IPOs to watch.
Asian markets headed higher on Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng climbed 1.5% to 12,126 and in China the Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.6% to 2,821. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index was virtually unchanged at 10,513.
Three years after it went private in a management buyout, Texas-based Kinder Morgan, which provides transportation and storage for oil and natural gas, has filed for an initial public offering worth as much as $1.5 billion. Is stock-market appetite returning?
Private equity giant Carlyle Group acquired mobile service provider Syniverse Technologies (SVR) in a $2.6 billion deal late Thursday, its second telecommunications buyout this week. Carlyle acquired communications infrastructure firm CommScope (CTV) for $3.9 billion on Wednesday.
The new incoming CEO will need to convince shareholders that GM, which is only a year out of bankruptcy and has posted just two profitable quarters, is a worthy investment. He'll also have to make sure the carmaker's dramatic turnaround is built to last.
A new suitor may be entering the bidding war for Healthscope, the second-largest private hospital chain in Australia: Tenet Healthcare. But the market's response to word of the negotiations has been decidedly negative.
That market has been tough to crack and also risky. For example, late last week, one of Despite broad global experience, private equity firm Carlyle's investment in mobile-phone company Willcom has gone bust as the wireless provider has filed for bankruptcy. Still, Japan remains a promising market for private equity, and Carlyle certainly isn't going away.
Now that private equity is no longer producing monster returns, it's time to assess its value. By using debt, buyout shops have taken over struggling companies and enriched investors. But critics say the practice leads to more layoffs and the "flipping" of companies.