Do your laundry, do your homework. Alliance Laundry Holdings (ALH Proposed), the parent company behind Speed Queen and other brands of commercial washers and dryers, and Phoenix Education Partners (PXED Proposed), the company that owns the online University of Phoenix, are on the IPO marquee for the first full week of October. It’s an abbreviated calendar – curtailed by last week’s shutdown of the U.S. government. The SEC is operating with a scaled-back staff. (Editor’s Note: This column, published earlier today, was updated at midday with news on GigCapital8’s NASDAQ debut.)
A large SPAC – GigCapital8 Corp. (GIWWU) – is expected to make its debut today as well. Dr. Avi Katz, a SPAC industry veteran, is the CEO of GigCapital8. The special-purpose acquisition company raised $220 million. The aerospace and defense industry, cybersecurity, AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) are among the sectors that GigCapital8 will consider in its search for a target company, the prospectus said. GigCapital8 edged up to open at $10.02 – up 2 cents from its SPAC IPO price – on volume of 855,153 at 11:10 a.m. EDT today – Monday, Oct. 6, 2025 – on the NASDAQ.
The rest of the IPO Calendar – for this week and next week – consists of a baker’s dozen of deals – and most of them are small IPOs. Many are still waiting to receive final regulatory approval.
Alliance Laundry Holdings (ALH proposed), based in Ripon, Wisconsin, aims to raise $700 million. Most of the IPO’s proceeds are earmarked to pay off some debt. The company traces its roots to 1908 with the introduction of the first hand-operated washing machine.
BDT Capital Partners, a private equity firm that is also Alliance Laundry Holdings’ biggest shareholder, will still control the company after the IPO.
Phoenix Education Partners, based in Phoenix, Arizona, intends to return to life as a publicly traded company with this $136 million IPO. The company was taken private in 2017 in a transaction valued at $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
All of the stock in Phoenix Education Partners’ IPO is being offered by two private equity firms that are also existing shareholders – Apollo Global Management and Vistria Group.
The company is the parent of the University of Phoenix, which was founded in 1976. The online school caters to working adults – and 71 percent of its students are women, the prospectus said.