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Lincoln International finished its New York debut Wednesday with a 12% gain, as investors seized on one of the few investment bank IPOs in recent years.
The Chicago-based middle-market investment bank opened at $22.51 per share, a 12.6% premium to the IPO price, and briefly touched $23 during intraday trading, giving the company a valuation of roughly $2.3 billion. Shares retreated slightly in after-hours trading.
The stars are aligning for a business that has spent over three decades building an advisory franchise deeply embedded in the private capital markets, CEO Robert Brown told PitchBook.
“We believed three conditions needed to align: momentum and confidence in our business, structural tailwinds in private capital markets, and a supportive IPO market ready to embrace our story,” he said. “We believe all three of those conditions exist right now.”
It will be a pivot for the company, which has never taken any outside equity until now. Most firms at this scale get acquired before reaching this point.
Brown said the IPO gives Lincoln access to a permanent base of capital to compete in an industry undergoing consolidation and allows it to more widely spread ownership of the business.
Lincoln and some of its executives sold roughly 21 million shares in the IPO to raise $421 million, according to a statement. The shares were priced at the top of the initial targeted range of $18 to $20 apiece.
The debut lands at a complicated moment for the industry Lincoln serves. Private equity has been grinding through an exit logjam, sitting on a record inventory of unsold assets while navigating a difficult fundraising environment.
“We saw material pickup in dealmaking in the back half of 2025 and anticipate that momentum continuing this year,” Brown said. “Private capital markets are materially larger than public markets, are growing faster, and are less cyclical.”
Founded in 1996, Lincoln operates across three businesses: M&A advisory, valuations and opinions, and private capital markets advisory.
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