Two companies preparing to go public postponed their initial public offerings this week, adding to a run of shelved listings that is testing confidence in the U.S. IPO market ahead of Anthropic's planned debut this fall.
Bamboo Insurance Services, a Midvale, Utah-based home insurer controlled by CVC Capital Partners, called off a New York Stock Exchange listing under the ticker BMB that had aimed to value the company near $3.24 billion, up from the roughly $1.75 billion valuation CVC paid for its controlling stake last year. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were leading the offering. The company cited market conditions and said the listing could be revived later.
The delay came days after Holtec Nuclear, a Camden, New Jersey-based nuclear-services firm, suspended a Nasdaq offering that had been marketed at $15 to $18 a share for 50 million shares, a deal that could have raised up to $900 million and valued the company near $10.2 billion under the ticker HNUC.
A Choppy Year for New Listings
Neither postponement reflects a shortage of activity. U.S. companies have raised $161.4 billion through IPOs this year, the highest volume since 2021. But performance has been uneven: five of the ten largest offerings this year trade below their issue price, and the average deal has returned roughly 13%, trailing the S&P 500's approximately 15% gain over the same period. Orion180 Insurance Group, which raised $240 million in a homeowners-insurance listing the previous week, remains underwater at its offer price.
The wobble comes as bankers and investors brace for Anthropic's own offering, which people close to the process have said could value the AI company at roughly $2 trillion when it prices as soon as November. Anthropic's size means its roadshow is likely to absorb outsized investor attention and capital, making the weeks around it an unusually sensitive window for smaller issuers weighing when to price. Bankers say companies with less pressing capital needs are choosing to wait rather than test a market where recent debuts have struggled to hold their gains, and expect a fresh wave of filings once the Anthropic listing has cleared.
Both Bamboo and Holtec have said they remain committed to going public eventually and could return to the market within months if conditions stabilize. For now, though, their retreat leaves the September calendar thinner than bankers had expected, and adds to a growing list of issuers choosing patience over pricing into a choppy tape.
