Boom year for IPOs ≠ historic returns: More than half of this year’s IPOs in the US are currently trading below their offer prices, with returns marginally up about 1.6% on a weighted average basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A volatile final quarter of the year and lackluster performances have weighed on the record-breaking year of listings, with inflation and supply chain disruptions posing more bottlenecks to the year’s class of IPOs.

The weak performance has raised question marks on how the IPO pipeline for 2022 will fare. “Investors are likely to exert more value discipline following this year’s IPO performance,” one analyst said. “Companies will also be more disciplined around what valuations they will be willing to accept.”

How did the TRY really rebound? Probably thanks to an “aggressive” intervention from the Turkish central bank, if nosediving foreign reserves this week are any indicator, the Financial Times says. Earlier this week, the currency clawed back some of its record losses after the government rolled out a new program to encourage holding on to TRY deposits, but calculations from the salmon-colored paper indicate that “the country’s net foreign assets fell by USD 5.9 bn” to end up in negative territory at the same time as the savings program was announced.

Whatever the Turks are really pulling, it’s too little too late for its sovereign and corporate debt. Turkey’s USD-denominated sovereign debt has posted its worst performance in 2013 and Turkish corporate debt is the sixth-worst performer globally, Bloomberg reports. The savings scheme didn’t do much to compensate investors in debt instruments for their losses “and risks piling further pressure on state finance,” the business information service says.

Several major buyers in Europe hit the limits of their contracted gas supplies, sending prices to a new record high, Bloomberg reports. Russia’s Gazprom — a main supplier to the EU and subject of much controversy for the past months over its slimming gas exports — has reportedly met its contracts with a number of major buyers, despite figures seen by Bloomberg showing that it’s on course to miss its targets for 2021 volumes.

Enter USA: 10 US LNG tankers carrying a combined 1.6 mn cubic meters of heating and power plant fuel are heading to Europe, shipping data compiled by Bloomberg shows. US LNG cargoes to Europe have ramped up this winter as the continent begins to look beyond Russia for its fuel.

ALSO-

• US stock exchanges are looking to Southeast Asia to compensate for a slowdown in Chinese business, the Financial Times reports. Countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia have long been overshadowed by China for US-based listings. Now they’re getting more attention from the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, as rising tensions between the two superpowers sees Chinese businesses forced to delist from US exchanges.
• Shipping giant Maersk continues push onto dry land with USD 3.6 bn acquisition: The world’s largest container shipping company has agreed to buy Asian warehouse giant LF Logistics for USD 3.6 bn, Bloomberg reports.

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 0.9% yesterday on turnover of EGP 1.1 bn (18.5% below the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 7.2% YTD.

In the green: Heliopolis Housing and Development (+5.7%), Aspire Capital (+4.6%) and Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development (+4.2%).

In the red: Rameda Pharma (-3.2%), Egyptian Kuwait Holding (EGP) (-2.2%) and GB Auto (-1.9%).

Asian markets are up in early trading this morning and futures suggest shares in Europe and Wall Street will follow suit when markets open later today.