TPG - Corebridge TPG Mobileye Bausch + Lomb Excelerate grab top IPO spots for 2022

Corebridge Financial ( NYSE: CRBG ), TPG ( NASDAQ: TPG ), Mobileye Global ( NASDAQ: MBLY ) Bausch + Lomb ( NYSE: BLCO ), and Excelerate Energy ( NYSE: EE ) have grabbed the top five spots for biggest initial public offerings of 2022, which saw last year's red hot market for IPOs and SPACs transform into a virtual ice ball by year's end.

Last year's market was a record-breaker for IPOs, helped by the spectacular debuts of EV maker Rivian, South Korea's Coupang, China's Didi, and Brazil's Nubank.

2021's biggest IPO, Rivian ( RIVN ), raised $11.9B in its debut, followed by Coupang ( CPNG ) with $4.6B, Didi ( NU ) with $4.4B and Nubank ( NU ) $2.6B, according to Crunchbase. Rounding out the top five was GlobalFoundries ( GFS ), which also raised $2.6B. SPAC mergers also made a huge splash, led by Lucid ( LCID ), Grab ( GRAB ), Aurora ( AUR ) and SoFi ( SOFI ).

What a difference a year makes. This year was a record-buster, with the number of IPOs on Nasdaq and NYSE plunging 78%, from 416 in 2021 to just 90 in 2022. Proceeds, meanwhile, plunged a stunning 94%, from $155.8B to $8.6B, according to a recent report by EY.

“The U.S. IPO market in 2022 was like the hangover after the big party in 2021. It featured mostly low-quality company IPOs and generally dismal post-IPO performance as a quickly rising cost of capital environment drove valuations downward for IPO companies," IPO expert Donovan Jones told SA via email.

Despite significant headwinds, several deals were still able to take flight. As opposed to 2021, which was dominated by tech VC plays, 2022's biggest deals were scored by corporate spinouts.

AIG  ( AIG ) spinout Corebridge ( CRBG ) grabbed the top spot for 2022, generating proceeds of $1.7B, followed by private equity group TPG ( TPG ) with $1.1B. Rounding out the top five were Intel ( INTC ) spinout Mobileye ( MBLY ), which raised $990M; Bausch Health Companies ( BHC ) spinout Bausch + Lomb ( BLCO ) with $712M, and liquified natural gas services provider Excelerate Energy ( EE ) with $442M, according to EY.

And despite the dramatic drop in SPAC activity, a handful of billion-dollar mergers emerged during the year, led by COVA's $3.5B deal with EV tech developer ECARX ( ECX ) and Tiga's $2.1B merger with LGBTQ dating app Grindr ( GRND ).

On Dec. 29, Corebridge and TPG shares closed slightly below their IPO prices, while shares of Bausch + Lomb closed 17% lower. Mobileye and Excelerate shares have fared much better, closing 64% and 8% higher, respectively, on Thursday. In comparison, the S&P 500 index ( SPX ) ( SP500 ) has fallen 20%, since the beginning of the year.

All three major US indices were moving lower as of midday Friday, the l ast trading session of 2022.

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