* Australia IPO deals set to rise six-fold to about $6 bln this year
* Fees for underwriting Australian IPOs up 10-fold this year
* Bankers predict busy IPO market next year, potential for bigger floats
By Elzio Barreto and Jackie Range
HONG KONG/SYDNEY, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Bankers in Australia have much to cheer this Christmas as fees from underwriting IPOs surge 10-fold this year, and many are now betting on an equally active year in 2014 as a slew of private equity exits keep the market busy.
Before the year ends, 14 more companies are due to start trading on the bourse after raising almost $1 billion in total. That would take the 2013 tally to about $6 billion, a six-fold jump from last year and the highest since 2010, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The rush of listings, most of which are concentrated in the last two months of the year, have led some bankers to predict an initial public offering pipeline of at least A$6 billion ($5.46 billion) next year, defying a slowing domestic economy weakened by falling commodity prices.
The resurgence follows two lean years in 2011 and 2012 when investor appetite for new issues slumped due to global economic uncertainty and a rash of poor secondary market performances.
"In Australia, we've been through a series of interest rate cuts... and that combination of historically low rates plus confidence around the global growth picture as well as lower volatility has attracted a lot of investors back into equities," said Hugh Falcon, co-head of equity capital markets for Australia and New Zealand at Macquarie Group Ltd.
The Australian IPO market has been the third-busiest in the Asia-Pacific region - behind Hong Kong and Singapore - rising from the 10th place in 2012, Thomson Reuters data shows.
The estimated fees from underwriting IPOs in Australia has jumped to $110 million this year, according to Thomson Reuters/Freeman Consulting, with home-grown Macquarie dominating the league table followed by Swiss bank UBS AG.
STRONG DEBUTS
"The challenging environment of the last four or five years meant the IPO windows that have occurred were very short. This has meant we have witnessed a lot of pent-up demand from issuers to go to market in recent months," Falcon said.
For investors, buying into new listings has been more profitable than betting on already listed companies, further emboldening issuers.
Companies such as OzForex Group, Veda Group and Steadfast Group have risen more than 40 percent from their offer prices. That compares with a 11.6 percent gain in the benchmark index this year.