In February 2025, the U.S. equity capital markets (ECM) saw 35 offerings raise $24.4B in total volume. Six IPOs contributed $2.8B, on average trading up 10.8% on the open on dollar-weighted basis. Notably, 83.3% of U.S. IPOs priced within or above the initial range. 

SPAC IPO volumes remain steady, with 8 SPACs raising $1.7B. February marked the ninth consecutive month with at least 5 SPAC IPOs hitting the market.   

Follow-on offerings dominated issuance, with 29 deals raising $21.9B. The average file-to-offer discount was 8.2%, compared to 5.5% in 2024 and 8.4% last month. Financial services accounted for 61.5% of follow-on volume (55.1% including IPOs), marking the sector’s highest monthly dollar volume since May 2020 and the third highest since 2010. Eight issuers priced their first follow-on offering, raising a combined $2.0B with an average-file-to offer discount of 14.8%. Additionally, 14 Emerging Growth Companies (EGCs) raised $2.9B, with only one month in the past year seeing less than $1.3B in EGC-related ECM volume.  

Charles Schwab’s (SCHW) $13.1B marketed follow-on is the third largest issuance in the last 10 years and the largest clean-up trade. The deal outperformed the average Day-1 performance for follow-on offerings in February, trading up 5.0% compared to 2.1%. Sailpoint (SAIL) priced its IPO on February 12, marking the second IPO of 2025 to exceed $1B. This already represents 40% of the total amount seen in 2024, which had five such IPOs. SAIL opened flat but gained 11.7% by Day 3.  

EMEA ECM saw 20 offerings totaling $14.6B, a 76.8% increase from February last year. Six IPOs raised $2.1B, with all pricing within their expected range. The combined ECM volume for January and February was the highest since at least 2019, marking a 25.0% increase over the next strongest start to a year ($16.3B in 2021).