SEC’s ‘Make IPOs Great Again’ Plan Hits Shutdown Stumbling Block

As the government shutdown enters its fourth week with no end in sight, companies looking to go public remain stymied by a freeze on the SEC’s ability to green-light their registration statements.

The latest snag came when Unilever Plc on Oct. 21 delayed the spinoff of its Magnum Ice Cream Co. unit, citing the halt on IPO reviews by Securities and Exchange Commission staff during the shutdown.

Prior to the lapse in SEC appropriations, the IPO market in September enjoyed its busiest week since 2021, with over $30 billion raised on US exchanges this year. But a prolonged freeze could negatively impact more companies in the pipeline and derail Chairman Paul Atkins’ pledge to “make IPOs great again.”

The SEC this month offered new issuers a flexible IPO path while 90% of the agency’s staff remains sidelined. They can effectively file statements with limited pricing information that will be automatically approved after a 20-day delay, though the SEC can still review the submissions and force companies to amend their filings once the agency’s back online.

That means a narrow window for any companies looking to make their market debut before year’s end, and broader uncertainty about the SEC’s views on would-be issuers.

“It’s a little bit of a hat tip to the IPO market to say, ‘listen, we’re trying to do what we can,’ but it still puts issuers in a difficult situation,” said Stacie Aarestad, a partner at Foley Hoag and co-chair of the firm’s capital markets practice. “It’s difficult for the company and underwriters to get comfortable with the disclosure because you haven’t had that process come to a conclusion.”

Maintaining an IPO Pipeline

Issuers stuck in IPO limbo got some relief in the SEC’s Oct. 9 guidance allowing companies to exclude a specific price from documents they file with the regulator.

Travel software company Navan Inc., tax adviser Andersen Group Inc., and crypto custody and infrastructure outfit BitGo Holdings Inc. are among the new entrants that recently filed for IPOs and can now market the deals without disclosing price details. Others may take Magnum Ice Cream’s lead and postpone their market debuts until the traditional SEC review channels have reopened.

“The new guidance is just trying to incrementally help companies that are in the pipeline,” Aarestad said. “Companies will continue to think of ways they can position themselves, wherever they are in their timelines, to make sure they can take advantage. The shutdown puts a fine point on the fact that externalities can impact the deal in ways that no one can control.”

Atkins’ stated goal for publicly traded companies may prove a dream deferred if the shutdown drags on to surpass the previous stalemate during Trump’s first term, though the SEC chief can still use his post to push for issuer-friendly changes.

“He’s on a mission to ‘make IPOs great again’ and it seems that one of the primary levers the SEC will pull in pursuit of that is a deregulatory agenda,” said Ryan Adams, a public company advisory and governance partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP.

‘Fear of Going Public’

The previous government shutdown lasted 35 days across late 2018 and early 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term, with no IPOs approved during that time.

SEC staff activities are significantly limited during a shutdown, including review steps required for a company to go public in a timely manner. All the while, Atkins and SEC commissioners can still attend conferences and panels, making public statements about how they intend to steer the agency during and after the period of uncertainty.

“We must simplify and scale the SEC’s disclosure requirements to reduce the costs of preparing SEC filings and, at the same time, make them more comprehensible,” Atkins said Oct. 9 at a Delaware corporate governance forum.

He also proposed addressing the “politicization” of shareholder meetings and curbing “frivolous complaints” by investors plaintiffs, in a bid to reinvigorate the market to its high point before the 2008 financial crisis.

“Whenever I talk to companies that are headquartered outside of the United States, one of the greatest fears that their officers and directors have is about how litigious the environment is in the US and the fear of going public with stock drop suits post-IPO,” said Anna Pinedo, a partner at Mayer Brown who represents issuers in public offerings.

SEC enforcers under Trump 2.0 have pursued fewer infractions related to big-name companies’ improper registration statements or disclosures compared with Biden-era Chair Gary Gensler, while shifting focus to individual perpetrators accused of offering fraud, insider trading, and Ponzi schemes.

But the threat of shareholder class litigation remains a major factor in public companies’ calculus, even as the SEC embraces mandatory arbitration and seeks to eliminate what Atkins says are “compliance requirements that yield no meaningful investor protections.”

High-dollar securities class actions boomed in the first half of 2025, serving as a venue for certain claims that Atkins’ SEC shied away from pursuing.

“Litigation reform in the securities area is certainly an issue that should be top of mind for anyone who is concerned about capital formation,” Pinedo said.