Underwriters of largest IPOs globally 2024

Cit was the underwriter of the initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco in April 2019. At almost 29 billion U.S. dollars, this was the largest all-time IPO globally as of October 2021. This was followed by Alibaba's 2014 IPO worth just over 21 billion U.S. dollars, underwritten by Credit Suisse.

Who were the leading underwriters in the U.S.?

Underwriting is the process through which an investment bank (the underwriter) acts as a broker between the issuing company and the investing public to help the issuing company sell its initial set of shares. As of October 2021, the underwriters of the largest IPOs in the United States were Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan – the combined value of their underwritten IPOs reaching almost 70 billion U.S. dollars. When taking a company public, investment banks charge underwriting fees, which are the largest single direct cost associated with an IPO. In 2020, the underwriting fees for deals in the U.S. which were valued between 500 million and one billion U.S. dollars, amounted to more than five percent of the gross proceeds from the offering.

What does the global IPO market look like?

Going public is typically a way for private companies to raise capital for expansion, although venture capitalists can also use IPOs as exit strategies. In 2020, mainland China had the largest number of traditional IPOs than any other region worldwide. This was followed by the United States, which saw a significant increase in the number of IPOs that year.