Underwriters plan to offer 5.5 million shares of Genocea Biosciences at $12 to $14 each to raise $71.5 million. The deal is expected to be priced on Wednesday evening to trade Thursday morning on The NASDAQ Global Market. The joint-lead managers are: Citigroup and Cowen. The co-managers are: Stifel and Needham.

 

Revance Therapeutics is a Newark, California-based a clinical stage specialty biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of novel botulinum toxin products for multiple aesthetic and therapeutic applications. Revance Therapeutics’

 

Underwriters plan to offer 5 million shares of Revance Therapeutics at $14 to $16 each to raise $75 million. The deal is expected to be priced on Wednesday evening to trade Thursday morning on The NASDAQ Global Market. The joint-lead managers are: Cowen and Piper Jaffray. The co-manager is: BMO Capital Markets.

 

 

These are just two of 11 biotechs planning on making their debuts in the first week of February.

 

Worth remembering: This is Wall Street, where anything happen. The same can be said for the IPO calendar.

 

Looking into next week, the calendar has four IPOs; two are biotech companies. They are expected to raise about $340 million. But more names could pop onto the calendar by the time that Monday, Feb. 10, rolls around.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Since the beginning of September 2013, 22 of the 105 IPOs that have been priced were bio-IPOs, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Their scorecard has been eye popping. Nineteen were in the winners’ circle by the close of Friday, Jan. 24, 2014, three were losers, and the average gain for all 22 was 72.7 percent.

 

The NASDAQ Composite Index was UP 15 percent over the same time period. It closed on Friday at 4,128.17, UP from 3,589.87 on Aug. 30, 2013.

 

The top three bio-IPO aftermarket performers were: Relypsa (RLYP) – UP 245.8 percent from its initial offering price; Acceleron Pharma (XLRN) – UP 226.9 percent and MacroGenics (MGNX) – UP 146.9 percent. Each of their prospectuses had some magic words sprinkled among their 170 or more pages. They were: Insiders indicating an interest to buy shares at the offering prices, collaboration agreements and collaboration revenues. Naturally, these aren’t the only reasons for the IPOs’ success, but these words are a start.

 

 

Underwriters plan to offer 5 million shares of Cara Therapeutics at $11 to $13 each to raise $60 million. The deal is expected to be priced on Thursday evening to trade Friday morning on The NASDAQ Global Market. The joint-lead managers are: Stifel and Piper Jaffray. The co-managers are: Canaccord Genuity, Needham and Janney Montgomery Scott.

 

 

 

 

Underwriters plan to offer 5 million shares of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals at $11 to $13 each to raise $60 million. The deal is expected to be priced during the week of Jan. 27 to trade on The NASDAQ Global Market. The joint-lead managers are: Jefferies, Leerink Swann and Stifel. The co-manager is: Baird.

Prospectus: (1) “Certain of our existing stockholders, including certain affiliates of our directors, have indicated an interest in purchasing approximately $35.0 million of shares of our common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price.” (Cover Page); (2) “We have partnered two of our oncology development programs with the global pharmaceutical company Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. (KHK).” (Page 1) and (3) “Under the research collaboration and license agreement with KHK, KHK has paid us a total of $17.5 million as of September 30, 2013.” (Page 10)

 

 

Underwriters plan to offer 4.8 million shares of Ultragenyx at $14 to $17 each to raise $68 million. The deal is expected to be priced on Thursday evening to trade Friday morning on The NASDAQ Global Market. The joint-lead managers are: J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley. The co-managers are: Cowen and Canaccord Genuity.

 

Prospectus: “In August 2013, we formed a collaboration with Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., or KHK, to jointly develop and commercialize KRN23 for the treatment of XLH. KHK has conducted one Phase 1, one Phase 1/2 study and one Phase 1/2 extension study of KRN23 in adults with XLH.” (Page 2)

 

    

The balance of this week’s calendar is non-bio. It

rounds out with Intrawest Resorts Holdings (SNOW – proposed), a Denver, Colorado-based mountain resort and adventure company; Malibu Boats (MBUU – proposed), a Loudon, Tennessee-based manufacturer of performance sport boats, and The New Home Company (NWHM- proposed), an Aliso Viejo, California-based homebuilder servicing select metropolitan areas in California, including coastal Southern California, the San Francisco Bay area and metro Sacramento.

 

All of the above non-bio IPOs are expected to be priced Thursday evening to trade on Friday morning.

 

Looking into next week, the calendar has 10 IPOs. They are expected to raise over $832 million. But more names could pop onto the calendar by the time that Monday, Feb. 3, rolls around.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Let’s take a look.

 

Santander Consumer USA Holdings (SC – proposed) is a Dallas-based consumer finance company offering subprime loans on vehicle financing and unsecured consumer lending products. The company originates loans through franchised automotive dealers for Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and Toyota in conjunction with the sale of new and used vehicles to retail consumers. It has active relationships with over 14,000 such dealers throughout the United States. In February 2013, it entered into a 10-year agreement with Chrysler Group to originate private-label loans and leases under the Chrysler Capital brand (“Chrysler Capital”) to facilitate Chrysler vehicle retail sales. Formed in 1995, Santander has about 3,900 employees.

 

Underwriters plan to offer 65.2 million shares at $22 to $24 each to raise $1.5 billion. (Note: Selling shareholders plan to sell all 65.2 million shares in the offering.) The deal is expected to be priced Wednesday evening to trade Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The global coordinators and joint book-running managers are: Citigroup and J.P. Morgan. The joint-lead managers are: BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, Santander, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank and Wells Fargo Securities. The co-managers are: KKR, Sandler O’Neill + Partners, Stephens and LOYAL3 Securities.

 

 

But there are other IPOs on the calendar. They are Care.com (CRCM – proposed) and Rice Energy (RICE – proposed). And the IPO handicappers are saying Care.com is “the pick of the week.” Let’s take a look.

 

Care.com is a Waltham, Massachusetts-based online marketplace for finding and managing family care for more than 9.5 million members in 16 countries. The company helps families address their lifecycle of care needs, such as child care, senior care, special needs care and other non-medical family care, including pet care, tutoring and housekeeping. The company also helps caregivers find full-time and part-time employment opportunities. Care.com was founded in 2006. It has about 543 employees.

 

Underwriters plan to offer 5.35 million shares at $14 to $16 each to raise $80.3 million. The deal is expected to be priced Thursday evening to trade Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The joint-lead managers are: Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan. The co-managers are: Allen & Company and Stifel.

 

 

Rice Energy a Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based independent natural gas and oil company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of natural gas and oil properties in the Appalachian Basin. Formed in 2013, Rice Energy has about 134 employees. The company plans to offer 40 million shares at $19 to $21 each to raise $800 million. (Note: The company plans to sell 30 million shares and selling shareholders plan to sell 10 million shares in the offering.) The deal is expected to be priced Thursday evening to trade Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The joint-lead managers are: Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Securities, BMO Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets The co-managers are: Comerica Securities, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Tudor Pickering Holt, Capital One Securities, FBR, Scotiabank-Howard Weil, Johnson Rice and Sterne Agee.

 

If you are ever in a quandary about what to do about an IPO, you can play the percentages. Last week gave you an example. They were: CHC Group Ltd.(HELI) and EP Partners (EPE).

 

CHC Group, a Cayman Islands-based commercial operator of helicopters, priced its IPO of 31 million shares at $10 each to raise $310 million. That was DOWN 38 percent from 29.1 million shares at $16 to $18 each to raise $500 million. The cut didn’t work. CHC Group opened Friday morning, Jan. 17, at $9.30 per share, traded high at $9.87, low at $9.25 and closed its opening day at $9.80, DOWN 2 percent from its initial offering price.

 

EP Partners, a Houston-based independent exploration and production company developing unconventional onshore oil (shale oil) and natural gas properties in the United States, priced its IPO of 35.2 million shares at $20 each to raise $704 million. That was DOWN 29.6 percent from 40 million shares at $23 to $27 each to raise $1 billion. That cut didn’t work, either. EP Partners opened Friday morning at $19.90 per share, traded high at $19.99, low at $18.04 and closed its opening day at $18.08, DOWN 9.6 percent from its initial offering price.

 

Each deal was drastically cut in size. Neither traded above its initial offering price.

 

These reinforced the old adage: “Cut a deal, cancel my order.” If you are looking for a “dead-cat bounce” in cutting an IPO for an opening-day pop, it works about half the time, but not for much. Let’s take a look.

 

From January 2000 through December 2013, 2,243 IPOs were priced, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Of that number 747 IPOs were priced BELOW their original filing terms and 1,496 IPOs were priced within and above range. Here are their opening-day scorecards:

 

Priced Below Range (747 IPOs): 381 up, 268 down, 98 unchanged and the median average was up 0.14 percent. (The median average is the mid-point return between the best and the worst.)

 

Priced Within and Above Range (1,496 IPOs): 1,218 up, 205 down, 73 unchanged and the median average was up 14.2 percent.

 

Naturally there are exceptions to the rule. Lately some, but not all, bio-IPOs have been priced well, well below their original filing prices and they got the dead-cat-bounce. Interestingly enough, there is a bio-IPO on next week’s calendar> But more on that later.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Hello, 2014!

 

The Tuesday entry was GlycoMimetics (GLYC), a Gaithersburg, Maryland-based clinical stage biotechnology company that is focusing on the discovery and development of novel drugs to treat diseases ranging from sickle-cell anemia to cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. The deal had the magic words for a bio-IPO: Its offering price was CUT to a single digit – $8 per share, DOWN from $14 to $16 – and it has a COLLABORATION agreement (with Pfizer (PFE) and it has COLLABORATION REVENUES. That did it. Its stock opened at $10.40 on Friday morning. GlycoMimetics closed on Friday at $9.01.

 

With GlycoMimetics’ debut, the 2014 IPO year was off and running. That left seven deals on the new year’s IPO calendar – with five set for this week alone and bankers expecting to raise $2.1 billion.

 

This year was the earliest start for the IPO market in over 10 years, according to the SEC filings. On Jan. 7, 2004, K-Sea Transportation priced 3.6 million common units at $23.50 each. It closed its opening day at $26.50 and was acquired on March 3, 2011, by Kirby Corporation (KEX). Shareholders had a choice of accepting $8.15 per share in cash or $4.075 in cash plus 0.0734 share of Kirby.

 

By the time 2004 was completed, 239 IPOs had come to market.

 

Now let’s fast forward a decade to the present.

 

Ten companies filed plans to go public last week, which was the first full week of 2014. They are looking to raise about $750 million. Another 11 companies filed updated amendments. They are looking to raise about $4.7 billion. And three companies withdrew plans to go public. (Note: Two of the withdrawals had previously been postponed “due to market conditions.” They were: LegalZoom.com postponed in August 2012 and GCT Semiconductor postponed in March 2012.)

 

 

The energy sector is “in play” with three names on the calendar. One deal is said to be drawing some interest from investors. It is a billion-dollar offering by EP Partners (EPE – proposed).

 

EP Partners is a Houston-based independent exploration and production company. EP Partners is engaged in the acquisition and development of unconventional onshore oil (shale oil) and natural gas properties in the United States. The company’s drilling inventories are located in four core areas of the Eagle Ford Shale (South Texas), the Wolfcamp Shale (Permian Basin in West Texas), the Uinta Basin (Utah) and the Haynesville Shale (North Louisiana). The company has over 5,200 drilling locations of which about 96 percent are oil wells. EP Partners reports it has, at current activity levels, about 24 years of drilling inventory. EP Partners, a holding company formed in 2013, has about 4,500 employees.

 

Underwriters plan to offer 40 million shares of EP Partners at $23 to $27 each to raise about $1 billion. The IPO is expected to be priced Thursday evening and trade Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The joint-lead managers are: Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities. The co-managers are: Evercore, Tudor Pickering Holt, Barclays, Jefferies, BofA Merrill Lynch, BBVA, Nomura, Scotiabank/Howard Weil, SOCIETE GENERALE, TD Securities, Capital One Securities, CIBC, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, ING, Mizuho, SMBC Nikko, Stephens, Lebenthal Capital Markets and Topeka Capital Markets.

 

Rounding out the rest of this week’s energy deals are: Cypress Energy Partners, L.P. (CELP  – proposed) and RSP Permian (RSPP – proposed).

 

Cypress Energy is a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based limited partnership that provides saltwater disposal and other water and environmental services to U.S. onshore oil and natural gas producers and trucking companies. Cypress was formed in 2011. The company plans to offer 3.75 million common units at $19 to $21 each to raise $75 million. The deal is expected to be priced Wednesday evening to trade Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The joint-lead managers are: Raymond James, Baird, Stifel and BMO Capital Markets. The co-managers are: Janney Montgomery Scott and Wunderlich Securities.

 

(Note: Cypress Energy intends to make a minimum quarterly distribution of $0.3875 per unit ($1.55 on an annualized basis) to yield 7.75 percent at the mid-point of its pricing range.

 

RSP Permian is a Dallas-based independent oil and natural gas company. RSP is focused on the acquisition, exploration, development and production of unconventional oil and associated liquids-rich natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin of West Texas. Since the company’s inception in 2010, it has participated in the drilling of over 300 vertical Wolfberry wells and served as the operator of over 180 of those wells and, in late 2012, shifted its primary focus to drilling horizontal wells. RSP, formed in 2010, has about 35 employees. The company plans to offer 20 million shares at $19 to $21 each to raise $400 million. The company plans to sell 9.2 million shares and selling shareholders plan to sell 10.8 million shares. The deal is expected to be priced Thursday evening to trade Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The joint-lead managers are: Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Tudor Pickering Holt, Raymond James, RBC Capital Markets and UBS Investment Bank. The co-manager is: Jefferies.

 

 

CHC Group Ltd.(HELI – proposed) is a Cayman Islands-based commercial operator of helicopters with operations based on six continents. The company said that it is one of only two global commercial helicopter service providers to the offshore oil and gas industry. CHC Group believes is it’s the world’s largest in its industrial sector. Formed in 1987, CHC Group has about 4,500 employees. The company plans to offer 29.4 million shares at $16 to $18 each to raise $500 million. The deal is expected to be priced Thursday evening to trade Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The joint-lead managers are: J.P. Morgan, Barclays and UBS Investment Bank. The co-managers are: HSBC, RBC Capital Markets, Wells Fargo Securities, BNP PARIBAS, Standard Bank, Cormark Securities (USA), Cowen, Raymond James, Simmons and Tudor, Pickering, Holt.

 

Looking into next week, the IPO calendar has two names. They are expected to raise about $1.58 billion. But those numbers could grow by the time that Monday, Jan. 13, rolls around.

 

 

Stay tuned.

 

 

Since the middle of December, two dozen companies have filed to go public.

 

Starting in mid-August 2013, when the IPO calendar traditionally closes down, the SEC filings picked up steam. During the last three weeks of August, 22 IPOs were filed, or an average of 7.3 filings per week. That was significantly higher than 4.4 filings per week from January through mid-August.

 

And the IPO calendar responded.

 

September through December (a four-month period): 91 IPOs were priced with eye-popping aftermarket results. Their opening-day scorecard: 66 winners, 19 losers and six unchanged. The average opening-day gain for all 91 IPOs was 24.1 percent.

 

January through August (an eight-month period): 127 IPOs were priced with respectable aftermarket results. Their opening-day scorecard: 83 winners, 36 losers and eight unchanged. The average opening-day gain for all 127 IPOs was 15.1 percent.

 

(Note: The above numbers exclude unit offerings consisting of common stock and warrants, closed-end investment companies, bank conversions and American Depositary Shares being offered for the first time in the U.S. capital markets that represent shares already traded on their own stock exchange.)

 

Here’s what has been happening at the SEC filing window since mid-December, another traditional time when the IPO calendar closes down: 24 IPOs were filed.   

 

The heaviest filings came from the health-care sector – 11 from the biopharmaceutical industry. It is worth noting: The last three bio-IPOs that were priced closed on Friday, Jan. 3, 2014, UP an average 56.8 percent from their initial offering prices. But don’t get carried away.

 

Now for the downside: Two of those three IPOs were reduced in size to meet limited investor demand and got a “dead cat bounce.” And another two bio-IPOs that appeared on the calendar were postponed due to market conditions.

 

There has been a lot of talk in the financial press about social media companies going public. At last count, about 30 companies have been identified as potential IPOs in 2014 – and this year’s IPO hunting season hasn’t even started.

 

One example is Snapchat, a provider of photo messaging applications enabling users to send photos, videos, text and drawings that vanish within seconds. On Nov. 14, 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported Snapchat rejected a $3 billion cash offer from Facebook (FB).

 

Chinese IPOs are back in play. Eight Chinese IPOs were priced in the U.S. capital markets during 2013. Their scorecard on Dec. 31, 2013: Seven winners, one loser and the average aftermarket gain for all eight was 90.7 percent. That type of honey draws a lot of interest. To date, no filings have appeared at the SEC filing window, but there’s talk – lots of talk.

 

Probably the loudest buzz in today’s IPO market is the pending Alibaba offering. Alibaba is China’s leading e-commerce company. The talk is that the company could raise multibillions of dollars in the IPO market. One question floating around is: Which market? Some say China. Some say the United States. Others think London could be the place.

 

And informed sources report that the New York Stock Exchange has 10 Chinese companies approved for trading on the Big Board sometime during 2014, yet there are no SEC filings.

 

In conclusion: As we have seen many times in today’s IPO market, the JOBS Act of 2012 has simplified and accelerated the IPO process. In a nutshell, a company submits a confidential filing to the SEC without public disclosure. Once the paperwork is completed, market testing is done, other pieces fall into place, and stock market conditions are favorable, then the S-1 filing is posted on the SEC’s website. Once that happens, a company’s IPO can be on the calendar in a few weeks. In some cases, it has all come together in just a few days.

 

Monday, Jan. 6, starts the watch of the SEC’s filing window and the wait for the 2014 IPO calendar to shape up.  

 

Stay tuned.