Interestingly enough, three small-cap IPOs wiggled their way into last week’s market, while one was postponed, and that pretty much swept the calendar clean. The IPO traffic resembled a light flurry of snow just a couple of days before Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
For the record, the “IPOs” were:
Taiwan Liposome (TLC), a biopharmaceutical company based in Taipei City, Taiwan, priced 3.75 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at US$5.80 each, down from 5 million ADS at US$5.80. But this deal was a secondary offering. Its underlying stock has been traded on the Taipei Exchange since December 2012. The stock closed its opening day on Wednesday, Nov.21, 2018, at US$5.80, unchanged from its offering price.
Tiziana Life Sciences (TLSA), a biopharmaceutical company based in London, priced 442,910 ADS at US$9.90 each, down from 1.01 million ADS at US$9.90. This deal was also a secondary offering. Its underlying stock has been traded on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange since September 2015. The stock closed its opening day on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018, at US$8.35, down 15.7 percent from its offering price.
TuanChe (TC), an organizer of auto shows in China, priced 2.6 million ADS at US$7.80 each, down from 3 million ADS at US$7.50 to US$9.50 each. This was an IPO. The stock closed its opening day on Tuesday at US$7.83, up 0.4 percent from its IPO price.
(For more information, check the company profiles by clicking on the individual company’s name on the IPO Calendar on the IPOScoop.com website.)
All Quiet on the IPO Front
Looking at the final week of November and the first week of December, the IPO Calendar is blank. That’s right. There are no IPOs scheduled to make a debut this week and next. In recent years, this has become more the norm rather than the exception, according to data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As “The IPO Buzz” reported last week: “For the month of December from 2013 through 2017, 44 IPOs were priced, according to the SEC. The December monthly average is nine IPOs.”
In addition, the SEC’s records show the IPO production line did not start generating IPO traffic during December’s first week.
However there was an exception. And there’s always an exception. It came last year.
The first of the post-Thanksgiving Day IPO traffic was on Nov. 29, 2017. It was the small-cap offering of ReTo Eco-Solutions (RETO), a Chinese maker of eco-friendly construction materials (aggregates, bricks, pavers and tiles) made from mining waste (iron tailings) and fly-ash, offered 2.8 million shares at US$5.00 each to raise $14 million. The stock closed its opening day, Nov. 29, 2017, at US$10.57, UP 111.4 percent from its IPO price. Fast forward to now: Reto’s stock closed on Friday, Nov. 23, 2018, at US$2.43, DOWN 51.4 percent from a year ago.
December’s First Week
For the week of Dec. 3rd, the IPO Calendar is as clean as freshly fallen snow. But anything can happen 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 opinion.