The first quarter had more billion-dollar IPOs south of the border than were issued in all of last year and was the best quarter in three years, with 43 IPOs raising $15.6 billion, according to Renaissance Capital.
The second quarter also looks to be strong, as big private tech companies finally make their debuts. Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX), which raised $750 million in a March 22 offering, was the largest tech IPO since Snap in the first quarter of 2017.
Spotify will come in for a direct listing on the NYSE in early April. Though not a traditional IPO, the move is being closely watched on Wall Street, where only a handful of such deals have been done.
By proceeds, the first quarter was also the best first quarter since 2008, with a number of big deals driving the flow, such as the $1.5-billion ADT (NYSE: ADT) offering and the $750-million Hudson (NYSE: HUD) deal.
But Renaissance says the important development for the market was the growing presence of Chinese IPOs, making up 21% of the proceeds. Eight Chinese companies raised $3.3 billion in the first quarter.
iQIYI (NASDAQ: IQ), described as a Chinese Netflix, was the largest, going public in a $2.3-billion offering Thursday. Its stock debuted on NASDAQ, and was trading about 4.4% below the $18 offering price in afternoon trading. Another online video company, Bilibili, debuted Tuesday, raising $483 million, and it also traded lower on its first day.
As for Dropbox, its stock gained 85 cents, or 2.7%, in late Thursday trading to $31.83
