Ozon Holdings PLC, often called “Russia’s Amazon,” is leading the short IPO Thanksgiving Parade this week. The Ozon deal is the first traditional Russian IPO in the U.S. since May 2019 – and it’s attracting a lot of interest. In addition to Ozon, three SPACs and one small-cap IPO are expected this week. Bankers expect to raise about $1.32 billion from these five deals.
IPO investors are starting the week in a buoyant mood. Olema Pharmaceuticals (OLMA), a biotech developing a breast cancer drug, scored a moonshot on its opening day last week. (A moonshot is a gain of 100 percent or more from an IPO’s price on the first day of trading.) Olema Pharmaceuticals’ stock jumped 157.9 percent from its IPO price at $19 to close at $49 on Thursday, Nov. 19, its first day of trading; the stock wrapped up the week with a gain of 157.4 percent.
The other five IPOs priced last week also performed well. Weekly gains ranged from 91 percent for Yatsen Holding Limited (YSG), one of China’s leading online cosmetics retailers, to 9 percent for Sotera Health Co. (SHC), one of the world’s biggest medical sterilization and lab services companies.
Wall Street’s SPAC machine kept pumping out the deals. Fifteen SPACs (special-purpose acquisition companies) raised more than $2 billion. One SPAC gave IPO investors a nice payday on its first tick. Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. II (DGNS) upsized its IPO at pricing: 24 million Class A ordinary shares were priced at $10 each, compared with its filed terms of 20 million shares at $10 apiece. The SPAC’s stock opened at $11.23 – up $1.23 from its IPO price.
Bankers raised a total of $6.3 billion last week from 21 deals, making this one of the busiest weeks of the year.
Airbnb (ABNB proposed) created a stir at the SEC’s filing window last week when it finally filed its public S-1, or prospectus. The global home-sharing company used a placeholder amount of $1 billion in its S-1, but many financial reporters and analysts have pegged this as a $3 billion IPO.
Wish.com, the global e-commerce platform for bargain hunters, made waves when its parent, ContextLogic, filed to go public last week. The company’s proposed symbol is “WISH.” Like Airbnb, the WISH prospectus cites $1 billion as the estimated amount of IPO proceeds.
A Monday Night Date
Circle Monday night, Nov. 23. That’s where the action is, with all five of this week’s deals set for pricing Monday night, to start trading on Tuesday, Nov. 24. Let’s take a look.
Ozon Holdings PLC (OZON proposed) describes itself as “one of the pioneers of e-commerce and the most recognized e-commerce brand in Russia.’ The company, founded in 1999, says its brand “has become synonymous with online shopping for our approximately 11.4 million active buyers in Russia in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2020. Our mission is to transform the Russian consumer economy by offering the widest selection of products (fresh food, car parts, electronics, home décor, children’s toys and other things) along with the best value and maximum online shopping convenience.”
This is an IPO of 30.0 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $22.50 to $27.50 to trade on the NASDAQ. If priced at the mid-point, the Ozon IPO would raise about $750 million. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank are the joint book-runners.
The most recent Russian company to go public in the United States is HeadHunter Group plc (HHR), which was priced at $13.50 per ADS in May 2019. The stock opened on May 9, 2019, on NASDAQ at $14.66 and closed its first day of public trading at $15.75. HeadHunter is trading now at around $24.45.
Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. (GNPK.U proposed) is a new SPAC or blank-check company that intends to search for targets in the aerospace and aviation services sectors. Genesis Park, based in Houston, will focus on companies with an enterprise value of $500 million to $1 billion.
This is a SPAC IPO of 15 million units (trimmed from 20 million units initially) at $10 each to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Jefferies is the sole book-runner.
Spring Valley Acquisition (SVSVU proposed) is a sustainable energy-focuse SPAC. The company will search for target companies involved in the businesses of energy efficiency, green buildings, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, wastewater managerment, water treatment, pollution control, recycling, agriculture, food production and chemicals. Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. is based in Dallas.
This is an IPO of 20 million units at $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ. Cowen and Wells Fargo Securities are the joint book-runners.
Tiga Acquisition (TINVU proposed) is a new Singapore-based SPAC or blank-check company founded by G. Raymond Zage III, the managing director and CEO of Farallon Capital Management, and Ashish Gupta, a managing director and a partner in Farallon.
This is an IPO of 20 million units at $10 each to trade on the NYSE. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs (Asia) are the joint book-runners.
Vision Marine Technologies (VMAR proposed) is a Quebec-based manufacturer of electric powertrains for electric boats.
This small-cap IPO was recently increased in size to 2.22 million shares, up from 1.7 million shares, at $8 to $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ. ThinkEquity is the sole book-runner.
(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO profiles on IPOScoop.com.)
(Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. You might wind up owning something on the OTC Bulletin Board.)
Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.
Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums), is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.