The IPO Buzz: Banking on IPO Billions

But there is a catch. Not all are true initial public offerings. (More later on that. The telling details come right from their respective prospectuses.)

 

Two deals on this week’s IPO calendar reportedly have attracted the interest of investment professionals: ING U.S. (VOYA – proposed) and QiWi plc (QIWI – proposed). What else do they have in common? They’re both about M-O-N-E-Y.

ING U.S. plans to price 64.2 million shares at $21 to $24 each on Wednesday evening. The IPO is expected to start trading on Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the proposed symbol “VOYA.” The joint-lead managers are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and J.P. Morgan. The co-managers are ING, Barclays, RBC Capital Markets, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Evercore, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Raymond James, Sandler O’Neill, Wells Fargo, BNP PARIBAS, BNY Mellon, COMMERZBANK, HSBC, Mediobanca, Piper Jaffray, Ramirez and Williams Capital.

 

Based in New York City, ING is a retirement, investment and insurance company serving the financial needs of about 13 million individual and institutional customers in the United States. ING US was formed in 1999. It has about 7,000 employees.

 

Note: The company expects to change its name from ING U.S. to Voya Financial over time following this offering. The name, “Voya,” evokes a voyage, as in the “voyage to retirement,” according to the ING U.S. website.

 

ING U.S. plans to sell about 36.7 million shares and selling shareholders plan to sell about 37.5 million shares. The company expects to have about 256.7 million shares outstanding after the offering.

Note: ING Insurance International B.V. is the selling stockholder and expects to own about 75 percent of ING’s common stock immediately following the offering 

 

This week, another money payment transfer service will be in the IPO spotlight. On tap is a Russian company capable of moving billions of rubles. The other two recent IPOs in this sector have been EVERTEC (EVTC) and XOOM (XOOM). Both were priced above their original filings and both closed their opening days above their offering prices. On Friday, April 26, EVERTEC was DOWN 2 percent from its IPO price, while XOOM was UP 13.9 percent.

 

Here’s what this week’s calendar has to offer from this industrial sector.

 

QiWi plans to price 12 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $16 to $18 each on Thursday evening. Each ADS represents one Class B Share. The IPO is expected to start trading Friday morning on the NASDAQ Global Market under the proposed symbol “QIWI.” The joint-lead managers are J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse. The co-managers are Baird, RenCap and William Blair.

 

Based in Moscow, QiWi is a provider of next-generation payment services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The company’s integrated proprietary network enables payment services across physical, online and mobile channels. It deploys over 11 million virtual wallets, as well as over 169,000 kiosks and terminals, and enables over 40,000 merchants to accept more than RUB39 billion cash (or about US$1.2 billion) and electronic payments monthly from over 65 million consumers using its network at least once a month. QiWi was formed in 2007. It has about 1,000 employees.

 

Selling shareholders plan to offer all the stock in this offering. The company expects to have 40 million Class A Shares and 12 million Class B Shares outstanding after the offering.

 

Of course, not everything that lands on the IPO calendar is, in fact, an IPO. Some of these companies have shares that can be bought and sold – yes, traded – on exchanges overseas. To get the story, just read the prospectus. Here are the details on three deals in this category this week.

 

GW Pharmaceuticals plc (GWPH – proposed), a UK-based biopharmaceutical company, plans to offer 3.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at a price to be determined.  

 

From its prospectus: “Our ordinary shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange plc, or the AIM, under the listing code “GWP.” On April 17, 2013, the last reported sale price of the shares on the AIM was £0.5900 per share, equivalent to US$10.79 per ADS based on an assumed exchange rate of £0.6562 to $1.00.”

 

Trade Street Residential (TSRE – proposed), an Aventura, Florida-based real estate investment trust, plans to offer 6.25 million shares at $11 to $13 each. This REIT is simply offering more common stock to the public. It is not an IPO.

 

From its prospectus: “Our common stock currently trades on the OTC Pink market under the symbol “TSRE.” On April 8, 2013, the most recent day on which our common stock traded on the OTC Pink market, the closing price of our common stock was $16.00 per share.” (Note: This price is after a reverse stock split of 1-to-150 shares.)

 

UBIC, Inc.(UBIC – proposed), a Tokyo-based provider of Asian-language eDiscovery solutions and services, plans to offer 2.4 million ADS at $7.50 to $9.50 each.

 

From its prospectus: “ Our common stock currently is listed on the Mothers Marketplace of the Tokyo Stock Exchange under stock code number 2158. On April 9, 2013, the last reported sale price of our common stock on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was ¥4,110 per share (which was equivalent to $8.49 per ADS based on the exchange rate on such date).”

 

Next week looks to be busy. The calendar has five IPOs expecting to raise over $1.1 million. In a preview of coming attractions Quintiles Transnational Holdings (Q – proposed), a Durham, North Carolina-based biopharmaceutical company, has drawn interest from the financial media.

Stay tuned.