Think of it this way: With the market for initial public offerings hitting the skids in 2008, 2009 can’t be much worse.

That’s the gist of a report from Renaissance Capital’s IPOhome.com.

The report found that through the first half of December, venture capital-backed companies raised $600 million through IPOs worldwide versus $10.6 billion in 2007. That’s just a shade higher than the $500 million raised in 2002 after the September 11th terror attacks and a recession.

U.S. market share of worldwide IPO activity was 30 percent, almost double the 17 percent share in 2007. That increase was largely attributable to the whopping $18 billion IPO of credit card company Visa.

In the United States, 43 IPOs priced, an 84 percent decline from 2007.

“There is a lot of pent-up demand by potential issuers to raise equity capital, both in the US, where there are nearly 200 companies in the pipeline, and in major non-US markets,” the Renaissance Capital report said. “If financial markets stabilize, we believe that many of these companies could test the IPO waters in 2009.”

 The report said that in 2009 investors likely would avoid “high-risk companies and deals that allow insiders to cash out,” but that companies with decent fundamentals and realistic prices could craft successful deals.