Mutual Funds to Beat Hedge Funds at IPO Market

Hedge fund managers have been beating mutual fund managers at scooping up initial public offerings in recent years, but given the weak performance of and loss of assets at hedge funds, their competitive advantage may be waning, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We’re returning to the days when [hedge funds] were not as prominent, and the more traditional investor base of mutual funds will be the larger share of buyers for deals,” said Joe Morea, head of U.S. equity capital markets at RBC Capital Markets.

While their pace of buying in the IPO market will decline in the near term, agreed David Erickson, head of global equity capital markets at Barclays, hedge funds will continue to be interested in IPOs. “Hedge funds are going to be very focus on chasing alpha, just as mutual funds will, which is often available in a normalized IPO market,” Erickson said.