While global IPO issuance slowed in the first half of 2008, there were distinct changes in market share and the types of issuers that could herald profound shifts in global IPO dynamics. Since Sarbanes-Oxley was implemented, prognosticators have opined that the United States would lose IPO share, but this has proved to be false thus far in 2008, thanks to Visa. Instead, it was the United Kingdom that lost share to exchanges in the Middle East and Asia, where economic expansion supported an increase in energy and infrastructure IPOs. The IPO market also saw a substantial decrease in the number of small IPOs, as investors were less inclined to take on the risk associated with less mature companies. more