IPOs take a holiday this week. Even though there are four deals on this week’s calendar, most are carryovers from the past listed as “day to day.”
What we are seeing is a transitional period as the biotech/healthcare sector is playing out, but there are clues that the IPO market may have found new leadership.
Here’s what happened last week in the Land of IPOs.
Seven IPOs were priced. Two found enough demand to get priced above their filing ranges; one within range; three below range and one was a unit offering consisting of common stock and warrants. Three more deals were postponed “due to market conditions.” (You’ve got to love that cliché, with the U.S. stock market indexes barreling along to near or record closing highs) and three other IPOs moved into this week.
Last week’s opening-day scorecard did not make for any barroom bragging either. Two finished as winners, two as losers and the other three were unchanged from their IPO prices. The average opening-day loss – yes, it was a loss – was 1.4 percent.
Nevertheless, there is a ray of hope glimmering from the last two weeks. One is a natural gas limited partnership. The other is a technology company. Both did well.
Gas Money
Columbia Pipeline Partners LP (CPPL) priced its IPO of 46.8 million shares at $23 each, UP from 40 million shares at $19 to $21 each, on Thursday evening, Feb. 6. The IPO opened at $28, sold high at $28.24, closed its opening day at $26.79 and closed Friday, Feb. 13 at $28.18, UP 22.5 percent from its IPO price.
Columbia Pipeline Partners, based in Houston, is a master limited partnership formed by NiSource to own, operate and develop a portfolio of pipelines, storage and related natural gas midstream assets. The company intends to distribute at least the minimum quarterly distribution of 16.75 cents per common unit or 67 cents on an annualized basis.
EQT GP Holdings, LP (EQGP – proposed), a Pittsburg-based limited partnership, filed for its IPO to raise $300 million on Thursday, Feb. 12. The company was created to own partnership interests in EQT Midstream Partners, LP (EQM) to own, operate, acquire and develop midstream assets in the Appalachian Basin. The expected pricing terms and offering date are to be determined.
Healthy Cloud
Inovalon Holdings (INOV) priced its IPO of 22.2 million shares at $27 each, UP from $24 to $26 per share, on Wednesday evening, Feb. 11. Its original filing was $21 to $24 per share. The IPO opened at $33.16, sold as high as $33.75, closed its opening day at $27, and closed on Friday, Feb. 13, at $29, UP 7.4 percent from its IPO price.
Inovalon is a Bowie, Maryland-based technology company that combines advanced cloud-based data analytics and data-driven intervention platf…moreorms to achieve meaningful insight and improvement in clinical and quality outcomes, utilization and financial performance across the health-care landscape. The company offers proprietary datasets, advanced integration technologies, sophisticated predictive analytics and deep subject matter expertise to help improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of health care.
Judging from what is being reported from Silicon Valley, there are many candidates chomping at the bit to launch plans to go public.
That brings us to this week and its calendar of four IPOs, all carryovers from previous weeks. Bankers expect to raise about $235 million, all from the health-care sector. Nevertheless, this is Wall Street, where anything can happen.
Stay tuned.
Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do we trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.