DEMAND FOR IPOS JUMPS AS SHARES STAGE BIG RALLY

       Coming off its worst year in three decades, the market for initial public offerings is starting to show signs of life.
       Eight companies are looking to raise as much as US$3.7 billion (Bt125 billion) when they go public next week, the most activity the US IPO market has seen in a single week in nearly two years and a clear sign that Wall Street's appetite for risk is returning.
       IPOs all but dried up in 2008 as investors shunned the traditionally risky bets and moved into safer assets like cash and treasuries as the stock market tumbled.
       Only 43 companies completed IPOs in the US last year, down from 272 the year before and 221 in 2006, according to Renaissance Capital's IPOHome.com.
       It was the slowest year for IPOs since 1978.
       The amount of money raised through IPOs last year sank 53 per cent to $28 billion, but more thanhalf of that came from just one sale.
       Without the mammoth $18 billion Visa offering in March, the largest US IPO on record, last year's total would have been a paltry $10 billion, far below the $59.7 billion raised in 2007.
       In another sign of how poor demand has been, the number of companies that cancelled their planned offerings nearly doubled in 2008 from the year before, according to IPOHome.com. The deals that did make it had disappointing returns, further discouraging investors.
The IPO market has trudged along so far this year, with 22 companies raising $5 billion in capital. Next week's heavy load of offering could mark a turning point in the market - if all goes well.
       "The IPO market has windows that open and close, and right now the window is open to get deals done," said Sal Morreale, an institutions salesman with Cantor Fitzgerald in Los Angeles.
       Analysts attribute the resurgence in IPO activity to growing confidence in the stock market. Major stock indicators are up more than 50 per cent since hitting 12-year lows in early March.
       With investors showing a willingness to take chances, companies are starting to feel better about raising money through stock offerings.
       The number of companies preparing to go public has been gaining pace since early July, four months after the stock market bottomed out.
       There are now 89 companies in the IPO pipeline, up from 29 in March. It tupically takes a couple of months for a company to prepare for a stock offering after the initial paperwork is filed with regulators.
       "This pot has been bubbling," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOScoop.com. "It's just taken a while for the courage to settle in the market to take that step forward."

       "The number of companies preparing to go public has been gaining pace since early July, four months after the stock market bottomed out."