The IPO well is drying up
IPOs are slowing down (Yahoo Finance)
Renaissance Capital's IPO Center says 134 companies have gone public so far in 2015, which would is down 35% year-over-year. The sharp drop off in IPOs appears to be a result of stock market volatility and the weak performance of recent offerings. Yahoo Finance notes companies that recently went public are down 8% on average in the aftermarket. Kathleen Smith, Renaissance Capital's IPO ETF manager, told Yahoo Finance she thinks this is starting to look like 2012. "When Facebook came out we had a weak market coming into it and it was an unsuccessful deal at the time." She continued, "Then a month went by and there was absolutely no IPO priced over that month. But after that once the window opened only the strongest, most attractive IPOs got done."
Caterpillar announced a major restructuring plan (Business Insider)
On Thursday, Caterpillar announced a restructuring plan to deal with what it says is a "a convergence of challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors - namely in mining and energy." The industrial giant noted 2015 will be its third straight year of declining sales and that sales are also expected to fall in 2016. The company has never seen four years of falling sales in its 90-year history, according to its press release. To address slowing demand in key markets such as Brazil , China and Russia, Caterpillar will cut as much as 10,000 jobs. "With the continuing decline in sales, it was appropriate to take the additional restructuring and cost reduction actions that were announced today, and issuing next year's preliminary sales and revenues outlook provided additional context for today's restructuring announcement," the company said in a statement.
At least a few endowments beat out Harvard (Business Insider)
The Harvard Crimson reports, Harvard University's endowment rose 5.6% to $37.6 billion during fiscal year 2015. However, at least two of its rivals saw bigger gains. Massachusetts Institute of Technology saw a 13% jump in its endowment and Stanford University saw a 7% boost, according to the Harvard Crimson. Last year, Harvard saw the eighth biggest endowment growth, returning 15.4%.
Infinity Financial Services is announcing a new prospecting program(Financial Planning)
Infinity Financial Services thinks it has created the remedy for what ails the financial advisory business most, a lack of good producers and new advisors. The firm has created a "CFP Advisory Program" to recruit and train financial planners. Gregory Gilbert, president of Infinity Financial Services, told Financial Planning, "The biggest gap we found is that most people don't know how to prospect." The program teaches apprentices how to prospect and make cold calls and meeting quotes, says Financial Planning.
Advisors are on the move (Think Advisor)
UBS has landed a team with $1.3 billion AUM from Merrill Lynch. According to Think Advisor, the team of Melissa Corrado-Harrison, Greg Richardson and Ronald Kemp brings in $7.8 million in yearly fees and commissions. Elsewhere, Wells Fargo landed two teams from Merrill Lynch with a total of $1 billion AUM. Think Advisor reports the Perry Group brings $300 million AUM into the fold while the team of Jonathan Schlackman, Alan Weintraub and Joshua Zamat controls about $700 million AUM.