Online brokerage eToro was among the companies that paused IPO plans following President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, but those plans were put on hold again on Monday as the trading site filed plans to go public.
It was one of several announcements this week that boosted hopes that IPOs and M&A deals could pick up in May after a painful April of uncertainty.
Food delivery app DoorDash (DASH) on Tuesday announced two acquisitions worth about $5 billion: U.K. food delivery app Deliveroo for $3.9 billion and New York food tech company SevenRooms for about $1.2 billion.
That followed $30 billion worth of deals announced Monday, including U.S. gas station operator Sunoco’s (SUN) $9.1 billion acquisition of Canadian gas company Parkland Corporation (PKI.TO). Footwear maker Skechers (SKX) also announced plans to be taken private by 3G Capital for about $9.4 billion.
“We are cautiously optimistic that deal activity will pick up given the continued easing of market volatility,” said Ivan Farman, co-head of global M&A at Bank of America.
“The second half of the year is likely to be more positive,” he added. Farman pointed to clarity from the current administration on potential tax changes and deregulatory moves as a “tailwind” for deals later in the year.
Meanwhile, it has helped that stocks have recovered quickly after the “Liberation Day” plunge in April, and strong first-quarter earnings reports from Meta ( META ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) in the past two weeks have also eased some investor concerns.
There is also increasing discussion in Washington, D.C. about trade deals with many of the U.S.’s trading partners, which would give companies more certainty about their future plans.
Apollo Global Management ( APO ) CEO Marc Rowan told Yahoo Finance this week that the firm sees “uncertainty” around companies in Apollo’s sprawling portfolio. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management.)
“When you don’t know the rules of the game, you stop investing, you stop hiring, you stop taking action.”
Of course, any major deal recovery is still a long way off. The number of announced U.S. M&A deals in dollar value fell 5% in the year to May 6 compared with the same period last year, according to Dealogic.
So far this year, U.S. companies have struck 3,047 deals, the fewest since 2009.
In addition, more than half of the companies that had planned to go public this summer have postponed their plans until the fall, according to Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital.
Most of the rest are “winging it,” Kennedy said, while a small group, “maybe 10%,” are going ahead anyway.
The total valuation of U.S. IPOs has fallen 33% to $9.3 billion so far this year compared with the same period in previous years, according to the London Stock Exchange. That’s well below the historical average for the IPO market.
Kennedy added: “We’re starting to see some of the companies that were originally planning to go public this summer willing to take a valuation hit and start moving forward.”
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