Vizio’s IPO Delay Typical for Year of Relatively few IPO Activations, Investment Firm Says

​There have been 168 initial public offerings priced so far in the U.S. this year, a 38 percent decline from the 275 IPOs priced in 2014, Renaissance Capital said in a Friday research note. Renaissance sees Vizio as one of several “high-profile” IPOs virtually certain to be “pushed to 2016,” because it typifies companies waiting “for a market that will accept their targeted valuations,” the investment firm said in a recent blog post (see 1512010028). The firm sees 2015 finishing as the slowest year for new IPO activations since 2009 because the IPO market has been “very valuation-sensitive,” and would-be investors are “demanding big discounts,” it said. Vizio filed an S-1 registration statement July 24 at the SEC for a long-expected IPO to raise $172.5 million, the proceeds to be used to expand beyond the U.S., Canada and Mexico, support its “strategic global marketing and branding campaign” and broaden its “portfolio of products and services” (see 1507260001).