The lineup for initial public offerings is in August vacation mode, with no corporate issuers scheduled for this week or last. The annual summer break should end right after Labor Day, said Ben Holmes, managing partner at Protégé Funds in Boulder, Colo. But it probably won’t pick up till mid-September because it often takes two weeks to run a road show.
“It’s a complete shut down,” Holmes said. The last corporate IPO hit the market on August 16 when Innerworkings, a printing company, raised $95.3 million. Its shares were priced at $9, at the top end of its range. Last Friday, Marathon Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, launched the only IPO. It priced 37.5 million shares at $8 per share in an offering led by Citigroup. The next IPO on the calendar is New Oriental Education & Technology Group, a private educator in China, expected to price during the week of Sep. 4.