the us initial public offering market had its slowest first quarter in six years according to renaissance capital with just 18 deals raising 21 billion plummeting returns at the end of 2021 effectively put an end to the past years ipo boom and coupled with the escalating war in europe issuance ground to a halt in late february renaissance a provider of institutional research and ipo etfs said in commentary there were just seven ipos that raised more than 50 million in the period led by tpgs billiondollar deal which accounted for nearly half of overall proceeds the privateequity firm tpg went public in january some 30 years after it launched under the name texas pacific group much of the market activity involved microcaps causing the median deal size to fall to 27 million the lowest in at least two decades ipos averaged a 33 return driven by explosive firstday pops from volatile small issuers and decent returns from larger ones said renaissance the renaissance ipo index ipo had its worst quarter since 2011 with a 25 drop well below the sp 500s loss the special purpose acquisition corporation market also ran out of steam with an almost 70 decline in pricings from the fourth quarter and a rise in deal withdrawals redemption rates and merger terminations the outlook for the second quarter is foggy and risk appetite will need to return before activity is likely to resume