The IPO Buzz: Rubrik & Loar Price IPOs Above Range; Marex Near the Mid-Point

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(Updates The IPO Buzz column, initially published Wednesday night, April 24, 2024, with more information on Thursday, April 25, the first day of trading)

Up is a golden word on Wall Street. Rubrik (RBRK), the Microsoft-backed cybersecurity data company, and Loar Holdings (LOAR), an aviation parts manufacturer, priced their IPOs above the range last night – ahead of their debuts today – Thursday, April 25, 2024 – on the New York Stock Exchange:

*Rubrik priced its IPO at $32.00 – $1.00 above the high end of its $28.00-to-$31.00 range – and sold a little more stock – 23.5 million shares – up 500,000 shares from the amount in the prospectus – to raise $752 million on Wednesday night (April 24, 2024).

*Loar priced its IPO at $28.00 – $2.00 above the high end of its $24.00-to-$26.00 range – and sold 11.0 million shares – the number in the prospectus – to raise $308.0 million on Wednesday night (April 24, 2024).

Marex Group plc (MRX), the London clearing and commodity futures firm, went its own way – pricing its IPO at $19.00 – just below the $19.50 mid-point of its $18.00-to-$21.00 range – on Wednesday night. Marex sold 15.4 million shares – the number in the prospectus – at $19.00 to raise $292.31 million in its IPO last night (April 24, 2024).

Rubrik’s stock opened at $38.60 – up $6.60 for a gain of 20.63 percent – on the NYSE in early afternoon trading.

Loar’s shares shot up 60.7 percent to open today at $45.00 on the NYSE.  That represented a $17.00 gain from its IPO price. Volume was about 2.5 million shares.

Marex Group’s stock gained 50 cents or 2.63 percent to open at $19.50 on the NASDAQ at 12:06 p.m. EDT today on volume of nearly 1.1 million shares. 

All three IPOs defied gravity to open higher – in the face of today’s sharp sell-off in the overall stock market.

Of the three newly minted public companies, Marex is the only NASDAQ listing – and the only one in this trio to report a profit for 2023.

Bankers raised a combined $1.35 billion in the pricing of these three IPOs on Wednesday night, April 24, 2024  – just as the month is winding down.

Rubrik in the Sun

For Rubrik, Wednesday night’s IPO pricing marked a moment that the tech unicorn’s fans had been waiting for – for years. The Silicon Valley data security company’s IPO rode the wave of enthusiasm for AI and cybersecurity – setting the stage for bankers to price the data security company’s IPO at $32.00 – $1.00 above its range. The size of Rubrik’s IPO was increased slightly – by a half million shares – resulting in 23.5 million shares priced at $32.00 – to raise $752 million on Wednesday night (April 24, 2024).

Goldman Sachs and Barclays led Rubrik’s team of joint book-runners, which included Citigroup, Wells Fargo Securities, Guggenheim Securities, Mizuho, Trust Securities, BMO Capital Markets and Deutsche Bank Securities. 

Rubrik, founded in January 2014, is not profitable. But its subscription ARR (annual recurring revenue) rose 47 percent in its fiscal 2024 (the year ending Jan. 31, 2024) to $784.0 million – up from $532.9 million in fiscal 2023, the Palo Alto, California-based company says in the prospectus. Total revenue also rose during the same period – to  $627.9 million in fiscal 2024 (the year ended Jan. 31, 2024) – up from $599.8 million in fiscal 2023. Rubrik’s net loss also grew – to a net loss of $354.2 million in fiscal 2024 – wider than its net loss of $277.7 million in fiscal 2023.  

As of Jan. 31, 2024, the end of Rubrik’s fiscal 2024, Rubrik served more than 6,100 customers, up from over 5,000 customers as of Jan. 31, 2023, the prospectus says.

“Organizations around the world rely on Rubrik to achieve business resilience in the face of cyberattacks, malicious insiders, and operational disruptions,” Rubrik says in the prospectus.

Rubrik’s technology alliance partnership with Microsoft is one of its strengths. In 2021, Microsoft invested an undisclosed sum in Rubrik that reportedly was in the tens of millions of dollars. In the prospectus, Rubrik says that “through our alliance with Microsoft Corporation, and along with our mutual go-to-market obligations, we have committed to spend $220 million over the course of up to 10 years for the use of Azure for our data security solutions and preferentially offer public cloud functionality for Azure to our customers.” Azure is a cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft.

Loar Takes Off

To recap: New York’s Loar Holdings, based in White Plains, priced its IPO at $28.00 – $2.00 above its range – and sold 11.0 million shares – the number in the prospectus – to raise $308.0 million on Wednesday night (April 24, 2024).

Jefferies and Morgan Stanley led Loar’s joint book-runners’ team, which included Moelis & Co., Citigroup and RBC Capital Markets.

Loar’s stock soared when it started trading on Thursday on the NYSE. Loar opened at $45.00, gaining $17.00 or about 60.7 percent from its $28.00 IPO price.

Loar designs, manufactures and sells “niche aerospace and defense components that are essential for today’s aircraft and aerospace and defense systems,” the prospectus says. Loar’s products include auto throttles, lap-belt airbags, seat belts, temperature and fluid sensors and switches, carbon and metallic brake discs and scores of other items. Loar’s top two aircraft platforms are the Airbus A320 family and the Boeing 737 family, the prospectus says.

Most of the proceeds from Loar’s IPO will be used to pay off some debt, the prospectus says. The company has incurred debt to pay for acquisitions.

For the year that ended Dec. 31, 2023, Loar reported a net loss of $4.62 million on revenue of $317.48 million.

Marex Prices IPO Just Below Mid-Point

To recap: Marex Group plc (MRX), a global clearing, commodity futures and financial services firm based in London, chose the middle of the road for its IPO pricing. Marex priced its IPO at $19.00 – below the $19.50 mid-point of its $18.00-to-$21.00 range – and sold 15.4 million shares – the number in the prospectus – to raise $292.31 million on Wednesday night (April 24, 2024).

Selling shareholders Amphitryon Ltd. and Ocean Ring Jersey Co. together offered about 75 percent of the stock sold in the IPO – more than 11.0 million shares. The prospectus says that after the IPO, Amphitryon will hold 45.9 percent of Marex Group’s stock and Ocean Ring Jersey will hold 17.7 percent of the stock. (Those post-IPO stakes assume that the underwriters don’t exercise the green shoe.)  

Marex sold only a small portion of the stock in the IPO – about 3.85 million shares, the prospectus says – while the selling shareholders offered a combined 11.54 million shares. Marex will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the selling shareholders’ stock, according to the prospectus.

Marex, founded in 2005, says “ the transformation of our business has accelerated over the last several years, beginning with the majority acquisition by a group of investors advised by JRJ Ventures LLP in 2010.”

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Marex acquired the global clearing business as well as the agency and execution businesses of ED&F Man Capital Markets. In December 2023, Marex acquired Cowen’s legacy prime brokerage and outsourced trading businesses.

“Clearing is the heart of our business, providing the infrastructure that connects clients to global exchanges.,” Marex says in the prospectus. “We also offer clients access to deep liquidity pools both on an agency and principal basis across a range of different commodities and financial markets, including metals, agriculture, energy, equities and fixed income.”

Marex reported a profit for 2023. The financial services company said it earned net income of $141.3 million in 2023 on revenue of $1.24 billion, according to the prospectus.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.)

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