One Biotech IPO on Tap for First Week of Q2

Just like the entire first quarter, the last week of March was a disappoint for initial public offering (IPO) investors. No offering made it out, and the one that had been scheduled to try, Sensus Healthcare, has postponed.

There is one IPO on the coming week’s calendar, another biotech that, if successful, will bring this year’s total to date up to 9, all healthcare companies and most of which had serious insider buying at the IPO.

Through the week ending April 1st, IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital reported that 8 IPOs have priced in the U.S. so far this year, down about 77% from a year ago. Total proceeds raised through last week equaled $700 million, down nearly 88% compared with the same period in 2015. Of the 8 IPOs that have gone off this year, all have come from the healthcare sector. Last year’s IPO total came in at $30 billion on 170 offerings. Renaissance Capital does not include “best efforts” or blank-check companies in its totals.

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There were a few big IPO filings last week, including an AIG spinoff called United Guaranty that is in the residential mortgage insurance business; US Foods Holding, a food-service distributor that was a leveraged buyout; and McGraw Hill Education, an Apollo-backed academic publisher. The first two are tagged by Renaissance Capital for $1 billion IPOs and McGraw-Hill’s IPO is estimated at $500 million.

This week’s lone scheduled IPO is Aeglea Biotherapeutics Inc.which is developing enzyme-based therapeutics in the field of amino acid metabolism that it believes will transform the lives of patients with inborn errors of metabolism and cancer.

Looking ahead, Renaissance Capital reported that MGM Resorts is sponsoring a REIT offering. MGM Growth Properties has filed for an IPO to raise $100 million. The filing was made confidentially in October of 2015.

Another expected IPO is BATS Global Markets Inc. which operates securities exchanges and other electronic markets. The firm filed an amended Form S-1 in early March, but did not include any pricing or size information. The company plans to offer 3.5 million shares in an estimated price range of $16 to $18 to raise about $60 million at an implied market cap of $194 million. Joint bookrunners for the offering are UBS Investment Bank, BMO Capital Markets, and Wells Fargo Securities. Co-manager is Needham & Co. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AGLE.