A total of 67 companies floated US IPOs worth $9.78 billion combined, down from 65 deals worth $14.52 a year earlier, the group said. This year's third-quarter deals averaged $146 million, down 34.6 percent from $223.4 million.
Last year's volume was boosted by the $1.67 billion debut of Web search engine Google Inc, which dwarfed this year's largest, fertiliser manufacturer CF Industries Holdings Inc, which floated a $660 million offer.
The report noted that companies from a broad range of sectors made their debuts in the quarter, including 12 industrial deals, 12 financial services, 10 in telecommunications and information technology, and nine in consumer products. Shipping IPOs raised $1.2 billion in the quarter, with Seaspan Corp the largest in the sector and second-largest overall.
The third largest deal of the quarter was commodities brokerage Refco Inc, which was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange last month in the wake of an accounting scandal.