Why Shopify Soared and Why Baozun Looks Weak

Investing

Published: May 21, 2015 10:55 am

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 10:23 am

Ottawa, Canada-based Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) priced its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday night at $17. That was above an expected range of $14 to $16, which had already been increased from an original expectation of $12 to $14 per share. Shares popped to nearly $29 shortly after they began trading at $28.

The cloud-based commerce platform for small and medium-sized businesses sold 7.7 million shares and raised about $131 million at a market cap of around $1 billion.

Lead managers for the offering were Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets. The underwriters have an overallotment option to purchase an additional 1.15 million shares. The company also will list its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SH.

The venture capital-backed company had more than doubled revenue in each of the past two years, and sales more than doubled again in the first quarter of 2015.

Over on the Nasdaq, Chinese e-commerce solutions company Baozun Inc. (NASDAQ: BZUN) priced its Thursday IPO at $10 per American depositary share (ADS), below the expected range of $12 to $14. One ADS is represents three Class A ordinary shares. The company is selling 11 million ADSs, but these have not begun trading as of the time of writing.

The Shanghai-based company that claims about 20% of the Chinese e-commerce solutions market and has attracted both Nike and Microsoft as customers for its business. China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba will own slightly more than 18% of Baozun following the IPO.

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Concerns about China’s economic growth are likely part of the reason for the cool reception to Baozun’s IPO. Another reason could be the crowded market, with massive players including Alibaba and JD.com among a host of others.

Joint bookrunners for the offering are Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Shopify traded up more than 53% at $26.06 in mid-morning action, after opening at $28.00 and rising to $28.74.

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