Global IPO activity is slowly recovering from the lows of early this year, but transactions are well behind the pace of recent years.

There were 326 IPOs worldwide in the third quarter, the most since the fourth quarter of 2023. However, those offerings only came to an aggregate of $23.32 billion, the lowest since the first quarter of 2019, according to the latest S&P Global Market Intelligence data. Through the first three quarters of 2024 there were 946 IPOs launched with $76.44 billion offered, below the first three quarters of 2023 when 1,061 IPOs were launched offering an aggregate $95.76 billion.

These numbers are well below the peak of IPO activity in 2021 when, through the first three quarters of that year, 2,355 IPOs were launched offering an aggregate $471.05 billion.

In the US, activity has risen steadily since the end of 2023, with 36 IPOs launched in the third quarter, up from 35 in the second quarter and 25 in the first.

There have been 347 IPOs since the start of 2022, which is nine fewer than the number of IPOs launched in the first quarter of 2021 alone.

There has been $26.28 billion offered through US IPOs in the first three quarters of 2024, nearly double the $13.73 billion offered through the first three quarters of 2023.

The largest IPO in the US so far in 2024 was for Lineage Inc., a real estate investment trust for temperature-controlled warehouses, which offered $5.10 billion in July.

European IPO activity slowed in the third quarter, with just 30 transactions and $770 million offered, compared to 47 IPOs launched and $10.33 billion offered in the same quarter last year. Through the first three quarters of 2024 there were 98 IPOs launched in Europe, compared to 111 IPOs in the first three quarters of 2023.

There has been $17.46 billion offered through European IPOs in the first three quarters of this year, compared to $13.50 billion through the third quarter of 2023.