Mix of good, bad and ugly

With a record 3022 new listings globally in 2021 raising a combined $US601.2 billion ($816 billion), how is Australia’s initial public offering (IPO) market faring in 2022?

In tough conditions, investors have been picky about what companies they welcome onto the stockmarket, but it’s a miner’s world this year as investors welcome new mining companies with open arms.

The global movement toward a greener, more sustainable future paved the way for Belararox (ASX:BRX), a battery metals mineral exploration company, to soar.

Also jumping on the battery bandwagon was Lithium Plus Minerals (LPM). More recently, Southern Palladium (SPD) boarded the IPO train to success-town.

With the good, comes the bad and ugly. In the current uncertain and inflation-plagued market environment, investor appetite for retail and technology stocks is low, especially for debutants whose value proposition doesn’t stand out among competitors. Beforepay (B4P) took the risk of jumping into the IPO pool in 2022 and it hasn’t paid off. Investors have been steering clear of high-risk fintech shares, especially in the buy now, pay later and alternative payments space.

Unfortunately, debuting in 2022 in the post-lockdown era where new competitors in the meal-kit delivery space are constantly popping up, My Foodie Box has struggled to take off into investors’ portfolios.

The overall consensus of the IPO market in 2022 is that investors are doing their research and making informed decisions before investing in market newcomers. This is due to tighter financial pressures through inflation and subsequent interest rate hikes, global economic turbulence and higher demand for meaningful products and services in everyday life.