Just two SPAC IPOs are on tap so far for this holiday-shortened week. But the real story is the rush-hour traffic at the SEC’s filing window in the week before Labor Day.
Thirty-one companies filed to go public last week in deals estimated to raise $6.169 billion, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records show. Another seven companies amended their IPO prospectuses. That’s an unusually hectic pace in a week when Wall Street typically shuts down and bankers head out to their favorite beach hideaways to get an early start on the Labor Day holiday weekend. The U.S. stock market was closed Monday for Labor Day, which most regard as the unofficial end of summer.
This $6 billion-plus in new filings further expands an IPO pipeline that has been building up mightily all summer long. It could indeed be a big fall season for IPOs, as the recent headlines in the financial press have indicated.
Some analysts believe the rush to the SEC’s filing window this summer indicates that companies want to go public before the presidential election on Nov. 3rd.
Seven companies went public last week. Two were small-cap deals – Applied UV (AUVI) and PainReform (PRFX). The rest were blank-check companies, also known as special-purpose acquisition companies or SPACs: BCTG Acquisition (BCTG), CM Life Sciences Acquisition (CMLFU), INSU Acquisition Corp. II (INAQU), HighCape Capital Acquisition (CAPAU) and Tailwind Acquisition (TWND) .
Palantir Call on Wednesday
Palantir Technologies (PLTR proposed) made a splash on Thursday, Sept. 3rd, with its public S-1 filing with the SEC for a direct listing of its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange without the involvement of underwriters. No terms were disclosed. The company is backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who was a co-founder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook. Palantir announced on July 6, 2020, that it had made a confidential IPO filing with the SEC.
The unicorn, which provides software platforms for analysts at U.S. defense and intelligence agencies as well as to big corporations, is known for secrecy. (A unicorn is a privately held company with a market valuation of at least $1 billion or more.)
But on Wednesday, Sept. 9, Palantir Technologies will lift the lid a bit by hosting an investor conference call at 10 a.m. EDT. The call will be livestreamed, Bloomberg reported.
A Light Holiday Week
Only two deals are expected during this four-day work week after Labor Day. Both are SPACs. Both are carryovers from last week.
Tuesday night pricing for Wednesday trading
Industrial Tech Acquisitions (ITACU proposed) is a Houston-based SPAC that intends to focus its search for target companies on North American companies in the industrial and energy-focused technology areas. This would include companies involved in software, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, cloud communications and ultra-high bandwidth services such as LTE and 5G communications.
This is an IPO of 7.5 million units at $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ.
Week of Sept. 7th Pricing
Brookline Capital Acquisition (BCACU proposed) is a New York-based SPAC that intends to focus on potential acquisition or initial business combination targets in the life sciences sector.
This is an IPO of 5 million units at $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ.
(For more information on these companies, see the IPO profiles on IPOScoop.com’s website.)
Week of Sept. 14th
The IPO Calendar is blank so far for the third week of September. That could change in a heartbeat, however, when the SEC’s filing window opens again for business on Tuesday morning, Sept. 8th. It’s likely that some more names could land on the IPO Calendar for this week and next.
Stay tuned.
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.