The shortened week due to the Thanksgiving holiday has put a damper on initial public offering (IPO) action. Only a South American blank-check company and a long-running offering from a Chinese firm are on the calendar.
Last week’s biggest noise came from the IPO of Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) which had to cut its price from an expected range of $11 to $13 to a final price of $9. The high-tech unicorn likely had to concede to the valuation haircut in order to satisfy investors wary of a firm with no record of making a profit and only a promise of a profit sometime in the future. Shares got a first day pop of 45%.
Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) which operates a number of online dating services priced at the low end of its expected range and the stock saw a first day pop of 23%.
Through the week ending November 20th, IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital reported that 168 IPOs have priced in the U.S. so far this year, down more than 35% from a year ago. Total proceeds raised through last week equaled $29.5 billion, down 64% compared with the same period in 2014. Of the 168 IPOs that have gone off this year, 78 have come from the healthcare sector. Last year’s IPO total came in at $85.2 billion, the highest total in the past ten years. Renaissance Capital does not include “best efforts” or blank-check companies in its totals.
Andina Acquisition Corp. II is a blank-check company founded to invest in the Andean region of South America comprised of the countries of Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The company is offering 4 million units at an IPO price of $10 per unit. Each unit consists of one ordinary share, one right, and one redeemable warrant. Sole bookrunner for the offering is EarlyBirdCapital Inc. Shares are expected to price Monday and begin trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANDAU.
Sole Elite Group Ltd., a China-based maker of shoe soles used in the manufacture of sports shoes, continues its weeks-long effort to launch its IPO. The company has slashed the number of shares it plans to offer to 2 million and added a warrant to each share that is exercisable at 120% of the IPO price. The firm also lowered its expected price range to $5.50 to $7.00. Joint bookrunners for the offering are Dawson James and ViewTrade. The shares are shown as day-to-day and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SOLE.
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