Name: NYSE President: IPO Outlook Is 'Incredibly Strong'
Uploaded: 2022-10-21
Duration: 9 min 5 s
Description: Lynn Martin says a pipeline of companies is ready to go public when market volatility subsides

Lynn Martin says a pipeline of companies is ready to go public when market volatility subsides

NYSE President: IPO Outlook Is "Incredibly Strong"

Leadership

Flynn thank you so much for joining us to talk about the financial markets and your new job as president of the new york stock exchange and I'm sure people ask you this all the time, when is this bear market gonna come to an end? When are we going to see the stock market rallying again? What do you say to them? How do you answer that question? I think the most important thing that we could be doing at the new york stock exchange is convening people convening people to discuss the economy to discuss what's going on. Markets staying close to our issuers staying open, ensuring that trades happen as efficient way as possible, that buyers and sellers are both able to express the opinion as transparently and as efficiently as possible. Well you see a lot of data you get a tremendous amount of market information and you talk to the C. E. O. S who are running the 2400 companies that are listed on the big board Listening to and reading all that data. Do you have any indications of how next year might look when it comes to the financial markets? I wish I had an indication of how next year was gonna look but unfortunately I don't right now I'm spending as much time as possible with our community of 2400 list. The company's combined market cap of those companies is actually over $30 trillion globally. So right now it's most important to stay as close to our ceo than ever. And you know what we're talking about a variety of issues. We're talking about things such as E. S. G. And how to continue to evolve in environmental, social and governance, uh impactful way as possible. Why are you picking up on that? I know there's been some pushback on, you know, some companies are saying their shareholders don't want them to be investing in and concentrating on environmental issues, governance issues when they really should be just making sure they get a good return for their shareholders. Obviously the primary objective for the ceo of our 2400 Companies is to maximize shareholder return. But importantly, they have seen the value that diversity brings to delivering on that shareholder value. It's why of our 2400 listed companies combined market cap of $30 trillion globally. If 100% have at least one female director, 95% of two or more female directors on their boards and 90% have 20% or more female directors on their board. They all see the value. The diversity of thought diversity of leadership can bring to the operating of a company. Let's circle back to what's going on in the markets these days. What's your take on individual investors and how they're handling these big sell off. The main thing that I like to tell the individual investor is it's really important for you to do your homework when you're investing in a company invest for the long term and have a balanced portfolio, have a diversified portfolio if you look at today, for example, that could mean having a variety of fixed income securities where yields are quite good. Um And you get the tax advantages coupled with your equities position. But even with all that research um the factors that move the markets these days are very technical, very complex and dominated by what people call robot trading. So it would seem that individuals just don't have the understanding that the professional market players do but they're at a disadvantage no matter how much research do I tend to disagree. I think the wealth managers have done a really good job in educating the individual investor and providing them with tools at their fingertips to do the analytics and the homework behind a company before they actually invest in the company. Let's talk about the I. P. O. Market because we've just not seen much IPO's these days. What can you tell us about the outlook for I. P. O. S. I think the outlook for I. P. O. S. Is incredibly strong. Uh Inter terms of the pipeline that we've continued to build. The public market currency has never been stronger. We have conversations with companies that are private that are looking to tap into the public markets either from a capital acquisition standpoint. Um From from a strategic M. And a perspective to reward their employees to diversify their shareholder base. So the public market capital has never been stronger. What you're seeing right now is timing. It's all related to timing the volatility in the markets is causing those companies who want to go public to take a step back and really decide what the right time for them to go into the market is. It's not until you start to see some of the volatility in the major indices start to abate that you're gonna start to see companies, more companies go public. Well how does the pipeline look? I mean do you get indications that there's a line up of companies that are ready ready to go public as soon as the timing there? Absolutely is we have a strong pipeline that we're ready to take public as soon as they're ready to go. But when investors look at the companies that went public a year ago, they've been some of the worst performing stocks this year. Do you think that that will scare off at least the individual investor from getting into the I. P. O. Market which used to be such an exciting investment to make? Well I think it will cause the individual investor to do a bit more homework before they make the investment in a company on their I. P. O. Day after they have gone public. You're still optimistic. I'm very, let's talk a little bit about leadership. It's been almost a year since you became president of the N. Y. S. C. And it's been a bit bumpy start. I'm just wondering how did the dramatic market selloff that have been going on this past year um shape the way you had to lead the big board from day one. So on day one I thought coming into the role that I would probably have a bit more of an active I. P. O. Market than I was facing. I think I was in the job a couple of weeks. The volatility really started you know mid january when you start to see those 1200 point swings in the dow. That that caused everyone to take a little bit of a breather. Um but importantly I had to focus on really important things like system capacity and efficiencies and ensuring our systems stayed open. And if I look at our performance over the last 10 months we've had all of our peak messaging days. The most incoming order messages, most buys sells trades happened on the N. Y. S. C. During this period were processing half a trillion messages across our platform every day. That it is an amazing number. It's more than 20% up off of the pandemic highs. So the amount of messaging that is in our system really spoke to the technologist in me to ensure that we are offering the most efficient experience for the liquidity that wants to be matched. A lot of people might not know that your background is pure technology, Your data scientist programmer. When you were a student, you studied computer science statistics, your first job was at IBM. So you have this tremendous amount of tech expertise? How critical is that for the way that you have to lead the NYC right now? I think every company has a technology story to tell and every company that is innovating is doing so with technology. Given that I've been so focused on technology throughout my career, not just at N. Y. S. C. Um, I find it to be a very exciting opportunity, but this is the first time that you're in charge of running a huge enterprise. Did you get any leadership advice before you started at the NYC? Well actually the group that I lead just prior had slightly more people than the N. Y S. C. So I'm used to leading very large teams and I'm used to leading teams through periods of transition. It's been a little bit of baptism by fire throughout my career where I've been parachuted into situations that are in the midst of a transition. Didn't happen to be a market transition like we're going through now. But it gave me the expertise. I'm sure many women look at you in awe and wonder that what do I need to do to lead an iconic organization like the NYC or a Fortune 500 company. What's your best advice? The advice I would give is don't be afraid to raise your hand for a tough challenge. Don't be afraid to say yes. Don't be afraid to seize the moment. Don't be afraid to make a bold step. Is that what you did? There are a variety of times throughout my career when I had been offered jobs, when I where I didn't think I was the ideal person and at first I didn't say yes for at least one or two of them. But then as time went on, yes gets much easier. And it's a piece of advice I always give to young females. Someone's offering you that opportunity because they believe in you. They believe you are the right person for that job. So just say yes because you are the right person for that job.