The IPO Buzz: June Starts with a Sizzle

June 2020’s IPO Calendar opens with some sizzle. Four deals are on tap and bankers expect to raise over $2.9 billion. But that’s not all. The word around Wall Street is that most of the IPOs are in play.

Historically, the June IPO Calendar has been busy. Over the 19 years from June 2001 through June 2019, the IPO Calendar averaged 20 deals per June. The busiest June was 2018 with 36 deals and the slowest was 2003 with just three IPOs, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filings.

By the way, June 2019 was no slouch. Its IPO Calendar produced 26 IPOs that raised $11.1 billion.

The 2020 IPO Scorecard showed 21 winners out of 34 IPOs priced so far this year. The average gain was 46.65 percent for IPOs versus a 5.76 percent gain for the Nasdaq Composite Index.

With this in mind, let’s flip the page to a brand new month and take a look at the first week of June. Deals are organized by pricing and trading dates.

Tuesday evening pricing for Wednesday trading:

Pliant Therapeutics (PLRX proposed), based in South San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies to treat fibrosis. Its initial focus is on treating fibrosis of the lungs and the liver by inhibiting integrin-mediated activation of TGF-ß.

For the 12 months ending March 31, 2020, Pliant reported net income of $8.5 million on revenues of $86 million.

Note: Novartis, a strategic partner and existing stockholder, has agreed to buy $10 million of the IPO at the IPO price in a private placement.

Pliant Therapeutics plans to offer 6 million shares at $14 to $16 each to raise $90 million.

Warner Music Group (WMG proposed), based in New York City, is one of the world’s leading music entertainment companies. The company owns Atlantic Records, which discovered Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin, as well as Elektra, the one-time record label of The Doors and Judy Collins, and Parlophone, known for Coldplay and David Bowie. Warner Music’s artists include superstars like Bruno Mars and Cardi B. The company owns Warner Chappell Music, a music publishing company whose huge catalog includes Beethoven, Gershwin, Lizzo and Madonna, according to the prospectus. Warner Music says that it was “the first major music company to strike landmark deals with important companies such as Apple, YouTube, Peloton and Tencent Music Entertainment Group.”

Note: On Friday, May 29th, The Wall Street Journal reported that China’s Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) has entered into talks to buy a $200 million stake in Warner Music before the IPO.

Insiders plan to offer 70 million shares at $23 to $26 each to raise $1.72 billion.

This IPO marks Warner’s second chapter as a public company. It previously went public in 2005 and remained a publicly traded company until it was acquired by Access Industries in 2011, the prospectus says.

Wednesday evening pricing for Thursday trading:

ZoomInfo Technologies (ZI proposed), based in Vancouver, Washington, is a leading go-to-market intelligence platform for sales and marketing teams. With about 202,000 paid users, its cloud-based platform provides highly accurate and comprehensive information on the organizations and professionals it targets. This “360-degree view” enables sellers and marketers to shorten sales cycles and increase win rates by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time, to hit their number, the prospectus says.

Note: Insiders BlackRock, Dragoneer and Fidelity Management are in for $100 million each – collectively $300 million or 39.7 percent – of the $756.5 million IPO.

ZoomInfo plans to offer 44.5 million shares at $16 to $18 each.

Thursday evening pricing for Friday trading:

Legend Biotech (LEGN proposed), based in Somerset, New Jersey, is a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel cell therapies to treat cancer and other diseases.

Note: GenScript, the parent company and majority shareholder, has agreed to buy $12 million of the IPO at the IPO price in a private placement. Legend is a spinoff of GenScript, whose stock is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Legend Biotech plans to offer 18.4 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $18 to $20 each to raise $350.1 million.

(For more information on these companies, please check the IPO profiles on IPOScoop’s website.)

Second Week of June

This brings us to the week of June 8th and the IPO Calendar is blank so far. But some names could climb onto the IPO Calendar when the SEC’s filing window opens again for business on Monday, June 1st.

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 opinion.