China and banking are featured on this week’s IPO Calendar, which is so light that it resembles the lunch menu at a day spa. Only three IPOs are scheduled, with bankers expecting to raise $223.44 million. That’s not unusual for mid-August, when the IPO market traditionally slows down and then takes a break until after Labor Day.
Two of the three IPOs on tap this week are from China – 9F and WiMi Hologram Cloud – while two of the three are from the financial or banking arena – 9F and CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc.
And speaking of China, investors will be watching the headlines intently again after the U.S.-China trade war took the U.S. stock market on a wild ride last week. No one would be surprised if antacid sales surged on Monday, Aug. 5th, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 767.27 points – or 2.9 percent, its biggest one-day percentage drop since December – to 25,717.74, according to The Wall Street Journal. By the close, though, on Friday, Aug. 9th, the DJIA, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite were down less than 1 percent for the week.
Most of the IPO action this week will involve Wednesday evening pricing for Thursday morning trading – the timing of the 9F and CrossFirst Bankshares deals. The remaining deal – WiMi Hologram Cloud – is expected to be priced Thursday evening to start trading on Friday morning; this one is a carryover from previous weeks. Let’s take a look at this week’s IPOs.
Wednesday evening pricing for Thursday trading:
9F (JFG proposed) is a Beijing-based digital financial account platform, often referred to as a fintech company or a fintech platform. This online lending and wealth management platform caters to young financially literate consumers who are underserved by other financial institutions. It’s worth noting that in China, the number nine is a lucky number; it means “long-lasting” or “eternity” in Chinese, according to TutorMing China Expats & Culture Blog.
CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc. (CFB proposed), based in Leawood, Kansas, is the holding company for CrossFirst Bank. This bank was established as a Kansas state-chartered bank in 2007. It provides “a full suite of financial services to businesses, business owners, professionals and their personal networks throughout our five primary markets located in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.” Its seven banking offices are located in Leawood, a Kansas City suburb, and Wichita, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and Dallas. As of June 30, 2019, CrossFirst had total assets of $4.5 billion.
Thursday evening pricing for Friday trading:
Holographic AR Ads from China
WiMi Hologram Cloud (WIMI proposed), based in Beijing, provides holographic AR (augmented reality) advertising services and holographic AR entertainment products. About 80.3 percent of its revenue came from holographic AR ad services for the three months ended March 31, 2019, while about 19.7 percent of its revenue during that period came from its holographic AR entertainment products, the prospectus says. This IPO is a carryover from last week.
(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Profiles on IPOScoop.com.)
Week of Aug. 19th
For the third week of August, the IPO Calendar is as clean as Bermuda’s pink sand at sunrise. But that could change when the SEC’s filing window opens again for business on Monday morning.
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.