The IPO Buzz: Getting a Grip on Stock Shock

A 665.75-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average is significant, but not nearly as drastic as a 508.33-point drop from yesteryear. Today’s IPO market is waiting to see how things will play out after the Dow’s plunge on Friday. You’ll have to keep a close watch on this week’s calendar and the SEC’s filing window. Bankers plan to price 11 deals; they expect to raise about $1.86 billion.

Now let’s flip through the pages of history to get some perspective.

On Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, the Dow closed at 25,520.96, down 2.54 percent from 26,186.71 the day before.

Flip back to Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987: The Dow closed at 1,738.41, down 22.6 percent from 2,246.74 on the Friday before. That pulled the rug out from under the 1987 IPO market.

During the first nine months of 1987, bankers priced 505 IPOs, or an average of 56 deals per month, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. The stock market bomb exploded in October. The November 1987 IPO calendar priced only seven deals. Afterwards, the IPO traffic slowly picked up again. In 1988, Wall Street turned out 291 IPOs – or an average of 24.3 IPOs per month. But IPOs were far from over.

Fast forward to 1997: The IPO calendar turned out 622 deals.

Now let’s turn back to the present and this week’s IPO calendar.

All in the Timing

Among the 11 IPOs on tap this week, the first three deals are set for pricing on Tuesday evening. They’re timed to start trading on Wednesday morning. So let’s take a look at the IPO calendar from a timing angle.

Tuesday evening pricings for Wednesday’s trading:

Bioceres S.A. (BIOX – proposed) plans to price 11.8 million shares at $10 to $12 each. Based in Argentina, this agricultural technology company creates, develops and commercializes seeds, crop genetics solutions, yield-enhancement solutions, fertilizers and other crop productivity solutions for agricultural and agro-industrial biotechnology markets in South America, according to the prospectus.

TFI TAB Gıda Yatırımları(TFIG – proposed) plans to price 22 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $9 to $11 each. Based in Turkey, the company is the world’s largest Restaurant Brands International (RBI) franchisee. The company operates or sub-franchises 625 Burger King restaurants in Turkey and 766 Burger King restaurants in China, the prospectus says.

Victory Capital Holdings (VCTR – proposed) plans to price 11.7 million shares at $17 to $19 each. Based in Brooklyn, Ohio, Victory Capital Holdings is an independent investment management firm operating a next-generation integrated multi-boutique model with $59 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of Sept. 30, 2017.

Wednesday evening pricings for Thursday’s trading:

Cactus (WHD – proposed) plans to price 21.4 million shares at $16 to $19 each. Based in Houston, the company offers a range of highly engineered wellheads and pressure control equipment as well as “one-stop shop frac services” for onshore unconventional oil and gas wells.

Evolus (EOLS – proposed) plans to price 5 million shares at $12 to $14 each. Based in Irvine, California, Evolus is a medical aesthetics company developing a biosimilar injectable alternative to Botox to treat frown lines and other signs of aging. The market for Botox is about $2 billion a year, the prospectus says. Botox is made by Allergan.

Huami (HMI – proposed) plans to price 10 million ADS at $10 to $12 each. Based in China, the company believes that it has one of the largest biometric and activity databases in the global smart wearable devices industry. Huami designs and makes smartwatches, activity and sleep trackers – and supplies mobile apps for them.

Quintana Energy Services (QES – proposed) plans to price 9.3 million shares at $12 to $15 each. Based in Houston, the company provides diversified oilfield services to leading onshore oil and natural gas companies operating in both conventional and unconventional plays in all of the active major basins throughout the United States.

Thursday evening for Friday’s trading:

Cardlytics (CDLX – proposed) plans to price 5.4 million shares at $13 to $15 each. Based in Atlanta, the company offers analytics related to purchase-data intelligence from more than 2,000 financial institutions. Cardlytics notes: “We have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money.” It provides solutions that let marketers and marketing service providers leverage the power of purchase intelligence outside the banking channel.

IPSCO Tubulars (IPSC – proposed) plans to price 23.3 million shares at $20 to $23 each. Based in Houston, the company is a supplier of seamless and welded steel OCTG – also known as oil country tubular goods. Its products include drill pipe, casing and tubing with a proprietary suite of premium and semi-premium connections. The primary end market for its products is onshore E&P oil and gas well operators in the United States and Canada.

Motus GI Holdings (MOTS – proposed) plans to price 4.3 million shares at $5 to $7 each. Based in Israel, the company is a medical device maker that has developed a single-use medical device system (the “Pure-Vu system”) to connect to standard colonoscopes to help clean a poorly prepared colon during the colonoscopy procedure.

(For more information about these companies and others on the IPO calendar, please check the profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.)

Next Week

For the week of Feb. 12, 2018, the calendar is clean and green, but anything can happen when the SEC’s filing window opens again for business on Monday morning.

Stay tuned.

Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do we trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.