Grant Thornton: Long Term Decline In U.S. IPOs
The number of companies listed on U.S. exchanges has dropped by more than 22% since 1991 and nearly 39% since 1997, even though that was around the beginning of the dot-com boom, Grant Thornton reports in a study that was two years in the making and was first reported by peHUB. U.S. exchanges are losing ground to exchanges in China, London, Italy, Tokyo, Toronto, Australia and Germany, where listings continue to increase. In the U.S., meanwhile, there are not enough new IPOs to replace the number of companies that are being delisted. Grant Thornton estimates a possible loss of 22 million U.S. jobs because of this situation and points to a "wholesale erosion" of the infrastructure that supports IPOs -- sell-side research, brokers, capital commitments by exchanges. U.S. stock markets now favor "computer-driven trading interests at the expense of long-term investors and the U.S. taxpayer," the report said.
