Bloomberg Invest: NYSE President Lynn Martin on IPO Appetite Amid Market Risks

I don't think so. I mean, there's always going to be geopolitical events happening and the political framework is always going to continue to evolve. And if you're a good company, you can always go public. I mean, you look at the volatility we saw in 2022, 2023, 2024, you had some amazing companies go public and do really well, raise a ton of capital to fund their operations, to build R&D capabilities. And they're trading at levels that are multiples of where they IPO'd. You look at a company like Reddit, for example, that IPO'd around this time in 2024, it's done extraordinarily well. So I think companies need to be mindful of how anything that's occurring on the geopolitical landscape is going to affect their businesses in the short term.

You know, I think the thing that makes me want to pull my hair out is, you know, the narrative around what we could do to fix the fact that companies don't necessarily see a quick exit in the public markets if you take a couple steps back. Yeah, our public markets are the envy of the world. You look at the amount of capital that gets raised there, secondaries, IPOs, whatever the case may be. It's extraordinary. It is why more and more companies are looking towards the U.S. as the most desirable geography from a capital formation standpoint. When you think about why a company isn't going public, a lot of times it is the areas that Chair Atkins covered in his 'Make IPOs Great Again' speech: simpler disclosure frameworks, looking at mitigating some of the litigation risks that face public companies, those types of things, significant shareholder reform, proxy reform, things of that nature. That's really what keeps companies off to the sidelines.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I've been saying this for years, companies being private for longer. That's a great thing, because to your point, when they come out to market, they have refined their strategy. They have a very clear path towards profitability or they're already profitable and they're ready to take that next step in diversification of shareholders.

Well, I mean, the president pushed for that.

It's a bit of a two-edged sword, because what it does eliminate in quarterly reporting necessarily mean you don't give people less transparency around financials. We hear you there. That's our job. But if you're a newly public company, should you have to report your first earnings call 45 days within 45 days after you've IPO'd? You've just given investors a very clear forward guidance and a clear look at your financials. What really changed over those 45 days? So I think there's probably a path forward that makes it less punitive but doesn't sacrifice the transparency. And potentially something we've advocated for is if you're a newly public company, maybe you don't fall into the quarterly reporting cycle immediately.

I will. I am.

It's the envy of the world, because I think of that. Right. But a silver bullet is not necessarily okay. Decrease the amount of transparency you're giving to investors. Although I do think there is a role for less frequent reporting for the newly public companies. But then also, what are you reporting? How are you reporting it? And does it look like a quarterly earnings call? It doesn't look like just a simple financial update.

Yeah. I mean, if there's a regulatory framework that allows for us, we absolutely would look at that as an opportunity. But right to your question, your initial question is our investment in Polymarket. The partnership is going incredibly well. We announced an investment in Polymarket about $1 billion last fall. It was really focused more on the data side and getting transparency, particularly when you look at how that data is impacting your more traditional markets. A great example is, which I love to tell people, is I was on the floor on election night and I remember looking up and you've been to the New York Stock Exchange. You see all the technology and market data that is broadcast every day from there. And I saw the market starting to spike up. I said, 'Well, what just happened?' The S&P futures in particular start to spike up. I said, 'What just happened?' And someone said, 'Polymarket just called the election for President Trump.' And that was more like a double-click moment. Like, 'Oh, interesting that the prediction markets are influencing what is occurring in your more traditional markets.' You look at everything that's gone on this past weekend, the Strait of Hormuz, which we've all been focused on. How is that impacting energy markets? Our parent company is the leader in energy futures contracts. So what you see on Polymarket around news and sentiment around the Strait of Hormuz is impacting what happens in our energy markets.