The U.S. looks set for another record year of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) based on companies in registration in the first half of 2007, according to the new Ernst & Young U.S. IPO Pipeline Report. As of June 30, 97 companies were registered to raise a total of $18.2 billion through IPOs.

"Global businesses continue to see a receptive U.S. IPO market," said Maria Pinelli, Americas Director, Strategic Growth Markets, Ernst & Young LLP. "The U.S. is attracting large IPOs from domestic and foreign companies that want the gold standard in IPO markets."

The biggest potential IPO, Cosan Ltd., is domiciled in Brazil. Cosan, the largest grower and processor of sugarcane in the world, has filed to raise $2 billion. With an average deal size of $187.3 million, potential IPOs remained hefty in size. The largest five registrations by monetary filing as of June 30 include:

- Cosan Ltd. to raise $2 billion - filed 6/25/07
- VMware Inc. to raise $792 million - filed 4/26/2007
- Symetra Financial Corp. to raise $750 million - filed 6/29/2007
- SandRidge Energy Inc. to raise $690 million - filed 6/22/2007
- Affinion Group Holdings Inc. to raise $600 million - filed 6/27/2007

"This strong pipeline is in line with performance during the second quarter of this year, when U.S. markets raised a total of $15.7 billion through 59 deals," said Pinelli. "In a booming global IPO market, the U.S. is leading the way in the amount of capital raised." The pharmaceuticals, technology and oil and gas sectors were the most active in the pipeline, with 19, 19 and 15 registrations respectively. Oil and gas companies filed to raise $3.5 billion, while technology companies filed to raise $3.4 billion and pharmaceuticals $1.6 billion.

Although there were only three biotechnology companies in registration, the sector showed significant strength by expecting to raise $2.3 billion. Within the U.S., more IPO registrants - 13 - came from California than anywhere else. Texas and New York also saw a significant amount of registrants, with 12 and 10, respectively. There were four foreign IPOs in the June 30th pipeline, from Argentina, Brazil, the Cayman Islands and Ireland.