There’s no dance floor at the NASDAQ, but maybe there should be. Hempacco Co. Inc. (HPCO), a hemp cigarette maker, opened at $38.00 at 10 a.m. EDT in its NASDAQ debut today (Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022) – up $32.00 for a gain of 533.33 percent from its $6.00 IPO price. Volume: 68,311 shares, NASDAQ records show. The stock hit an intraday high of $41.80 and then retraced a bit to trade at $34.20 by mid-morning. By 11:14 a.m. EDT, Hempacco had given up more ground – trading at $15.46, up $9.46 or 157.67 percent from its IPO price, on volume of about 490,000 shares. By 12:56 p.m. EDT, Hempacco’s stock was trading at $14.34, up $8.34, or up 139 percent, from its IPO price. Hempacco closed its first day of trading at $7.78, up $1.78 or 29.67 percent from its IPO price, on volume of 4.3 million shares. (Editor’s Note: This column, published Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022, was updated throughout the day on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, with pricing and trading news.)
Hempacco priced its IPO on Monday night (Aug. 29, 2022) by selling 1 million shares at $6.00 each, as expected, to raise $6.0 million. This deal was among just a handful of IPOs deemed likely to get done as August wraps up in the week before the long Labor Day holiday weekend.
Hempacco’s opening-day flight bucked the trend in the overall U.S. stock market, which was in a post-Fed funk again. The three major U.S. stock indexes each slid 1 percent on Tuesday, with the Dow ending down 308.12 points at 31,790.87, the NASDAQ Composite Index finishing down 134.53 points at 11,883.14, and the S&P 500 Index closing down 44.45 points at 3,986.16. The sell-off was driven by investors’ anxiety over rising interest rates after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish tone on inflation on Friday at Jackson Hole.
Boustead Securities was the sole book-runner of Hempacco’s IPO.
Based in San Diego, Hempacco makes hemp cigarettes and flavored hemp rolling papers. The company’s joint venture (JV) projects include one JV with rapper Rick Ross and Rap Snack’s CEO James Lindsay, and a JV to launch Cheech & Chong-branded hemp smokables. Hempacco is a subsidiary of Green Globe International, which will own about 80 percent of the stock after the IPO.
Hempacco is not profitable, according to the prospectus.
Cancer Biotech IPO Priced Tuesday Night
Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (SHPH), a radiation-focused cancer biotech, priced its IPO (stock and warrants) on late Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 30, 2022) in sync with the terms in its prospectus: 1.23 million units at $8.125 ($8.13) per unit. The IPO raised $9.96 million.
Boustead Securities and Valuable Capital were the joint book-runners.
Worth noting: Shuttle Pharmaceuticals’ stock started trading at 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (Aug. 31, 2022) at $24.05 – up $15.925 for a gain of 196 percent from its IPO price of $8.125 – in its debut on the NASDAQ. Shuttle’s stock was trading at $36.77 around 1:40 p.m. EDT – up $28.65 or up 352.55 percent – from its IPO price.
The company said that it does not plan to list the warrants on the NASDAQ or any national securities exchange or trading system, according to the prospectus.
Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 by faculty members of Georgetown University Medical Center. The company is based in Rockville, Maryland. The IPO’s proceeds will be used to develop its lead clinical sensitizer drug candidate, known as ropidoxuridine (IPdR), an orally available halogenated pyrimidine, in combination with radiation therapy (RT). The company intends to evaluate IPdR and RT to treat glioblastoma (brain cancer) and sarcoma (bone and soft tissue cancer). Shuttle Pharmaceuticals says it is positioned to start Phase II clinical trials in 2022.
Addentax Priced its NASDAQ Uplisting Deal Tuesday Night
Addentax Group Corp. (ATXG), the Nevada holding company of a Chinese garment manufacturing and logistics conglomerate, priced its small-cap public offering on Tuesday night (Aug. 30) in connection with its NASDAQ uplisting. Addentax priced its deal at $5.00 and sold 5 million shares, in sync with the terms in the prospectus, to raise $25.0 million.
Network 1 Financial Securities was the sole book-runner of the Addentax deal.
Shares of Addentax opened Wednesday at $27.00 on the NASDAQ – up $22.00 from their public offering price. Addentax was trading at $167.08 – up $162.08 or up 439.84 percent – at around 1:45 p.m. EDT today (Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022) on the NASDAQ.
Diagnostic Company’s Unit IPO On Tap Tonight
One more deal – expected to price Tuesday night (Aug. 30) – was moved back to Wednesday night’s pricing roster:
—bioAffinityTechnologies (BIAF proposed/ BIAFW proposed) – This cancer diagnostic company’s tiny IPO of 1.29 million units (stock and warrants) at $6.00 to $6.25 per unit – was pushed back to pricing on Wednesday night (Aug. 31, 2022). If priced at the $6.13 mid-point, this IPO would raise $7.9 million. WallachBeth Capital is the sole book-runner. Craft Capital Management is the co-manager.
Based in San Antonio, bioAffinity Technologies is developing CyPath Lung, its first diagnostic test. This is a non-invasive test to improve early detection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The company says its research is conducted in its labs at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Financial statements in the prospectus show that bioAffinity Technologies is not profitable.
SPAC IPO Not Pricing Tonight
In the world of SPAC IPOs, the timing of Aquaron Acquisition Corp.’s deal is still to be determined. Some on the Street had thought previously that this deal might get priced as part of August’s last hurrah, but that is not in the cards. Aquaron Acquisition Corp. (AQUNU proposed) is a small-cap SPAC IPO – just 5.0 million units at $10.00 each to raise $50.0 million. Chardan is the sole book-runner.
New York-based Aquaron Acquisition intends to focus on the new energy sector in Asia, with two exceptions related to China: no China VIE structures and no company whose financial statements are off limits to audits by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) for two consecutive years beginning in 2021.
Bankers and IPO investors appear to be winding things down ahead of the long Labor Day holiday weekend. Labor Day will be celebrated this year on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022.
Stay tuned.
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