First-time share sales this year pulled in $146 billion, excluding blank-check firms, data compiled by Bloomberg show
by Bailey Lipschultz and Anthony Hughes
Wall Street is looking for private equity firms to take a swath of their portfolio companies public in the hopes that the low boil of IPO activity since the pandemic will finally bubble over.
After years of buyout firms pulling different levers to extend asset holding periods, while investors in initial public offerings largely waited out the hangover from the pandemic-era dealmaking binge, sizable companies in sectors from industrials to tech are set to go public in 2026.
The highly anticipated deals that bankers have been working on span the globe. Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s wireless carrier Jio Platforms Ltd., which drew backing from firms including KKR & Co. five years ago, could be valued at as much as $170 billion in a listing. In Europe and the US, buyout firm-backed companies are set to account for some of 2026’s biggest IPOs, with Advent and Cinven-backed TK Elevator, Hg’s software firm Visma, Blackstone Inc.-owned Copeland and EQT AB’s Reworld among the candidates.
First-time share sales this year pulled in $146 billion, excluding blank-check firms, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s still below the average in the decade before Covid. Given the sheer size of some private equity-backed IPO candidates, a surge could easily propel the haul back above that threshold, so long as markets cooperate.
“There’s not a scenario where you have a robust market, you’re heading back to levels you haven’t seen in five years, and PE portfolios are not participating in that,” Kevin Foley, global head of capital markets at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in an interview.
However, investors who buy in will have to look past the mixed performance from private equity’s class of 2025 IPOs. Hellman & Friedman-backed Verisure Plc is among the few bright spots this year with shares up 9% from its October debut in Stockholm, while Carlyle Group Inc.’s Mumbai-listed Hexaware Technologies Ltd. is modestly higher. It’s been tougher in the US, where investors suffered steep losses from Thoma Bravo-backed SailPoint Inc.’s 16% tumble since February and Advent’s NIQ Global Intelligence Plc plunging 26% from late July.
Coaxing private equity to take companies public has been touch and go in recent years, with investors wary of higher debt loads and valuation expectations a sticking point. There have been 137 private equity-backed IPOs in 2025 as of Dec. 3, on pace to be among the fewest since 2010, according to PitchBook data.
But over the past few months, dealmakers have been actively pitching firms and their operating companies on new offerings, with heavyweights like Blackstone declaring their IPO pipeline to be the biggest since 2021.
“The sponsors are going to have to come to the IPO market in 2026,” said Eddie Molloy, co-head of global ECM at Morgan Stanley. Based on the activity among companies talking to potential IPO underwriters this fall and into the early winter, it’s going to be a big year for private equity-backed firms, he said.
Hopes for a wave of private equity-backed deals have fallen short in recent years even with markets climbing steadily. Interest rates that, though historically modest, are stubbornly above pre-pandemic levels will likely remain a factor influencing whether investors and asset owners can come together on valuation.
“What remains unclear is whether 2026 will be the tipping point,” said JPMorgan’s Foley. “Ultimately, it all comes down to valuations – whether PE firms feel they’re getting their full return on the investment and considering their position in the investment life cycle.”
Private equity firms have been using a range of mechanisms in recent months to return cash to their investors, known as limited partners. One method is to sell assets to so-called continuation funds, giving backers the chance to offload their stakes while delaying a full exit.
“Private equity sponsors have more tools available to return capital to LPs than they have historically,” said Douglas Adams, global ECM head at Citigroup Inc., citing continuation funds and pre-IPO financings. “All of this has given them greater flexibility in deciding when to go public.”
Adams sees going public as the eventual end point, “a question of when, not if, given the size and profile of many of these businesses.”
A further pickup in private equity IPOs in Europe will be closely watched given how listings there such as General Atlantic’s SMG Swiss Marketplace Group have accounted for a larger share of sizable debuts, and how first-time share sale volume there has lagged the rest of the world’s.
“The number of deals is still much lower, but in general, you’ve got activity picking up,” John Kolz, global head of ECM at Barclays Plc, said about Europe. “All the dynamics that we talk about in the US are mimicked in some regards in Europe.”
The region has also been grappling with an exodus of companies to US exchanges as the firms seek better valuations.
Deals to Watch
While expectations for private equity-backed debuts remain lofty, there’s a chance those deals could be dwarfed by the listings of US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is currently under discussion in Washington. And investors are anticipating billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s plans for a $5 billion listing of his US closed-end fund.
There’s also the prospect of tech companies such as OpenAI and Databricks finally delivering IPOs after blockbuster private funding rounds drove their valuations well above those of the most coveted names that went public in 2025. On the other hand, unlike private equity-backed firms that at some point need to return funds to LPs, the only constraint on decacorn startups appears to be whether near-insatiable investors will keep giving them billions of dollars through private fundraising. “What the upper limit is in private markets is still to be seen, but we believe what the public markets can handle is substantially larger,” JPMorgan’s Foley said.
While public market investors may feel like they’re being denied access to the buzziest companies, IPO candidates with exposure to hot sectors such as digital assets or AI infrastructure have been happy to fill the gap in recent months.
And with Asia leading the way in terms of IPO volume, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, investors in other regions hunting for opportunities would do well to look beyond their back yards.
“There are a number of factors supporting the pick-up in activity, including attractive equity valuations, the inflow of international capital across Asia and the pace of innovation in the region, particularly in sectors such as tech and health care,” said Arnaud Blanchard, Morgan Stanley’s co-head of global ECM.
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