The IPO Buzz: November Opens with a $2.4 Billion Week

The first week of November features a $2.4 billion IPO Calendar, with one deal – GFL Environmental – accounting for most of that volume. GFL, the Canadian trash and recycling giant, aims to raise $1.9 billion. It’s among 10 IPOs on tap this week.

Health care is the dominant sector this week. Five of the 10 IPOs on the calendar are health-care deals. Three are biotechs. A German data bank on rare diseases is also planning to go public, along with a company that makes reinforced tissue for use in surgery.

Looking back at last month, October 2019 goes down in IPO history as above average – with 22 IPOs priced. That’s well above October’s historic average of 19.8 IPOs priced in this month alone from 2001 through 2018, according to IPOScoop’s data.

November’s average IPO volume is 17, based on 18 years of monthly data in IPOScoop’s records. The busiest November was 2007, with 38 IPOs priced. The leanest November was 2008, with just one IPO priced in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ collapse. And, just for the record, what about last November? Eleven IPOs were priced.

If IPO bankers keep up this week’s pace, November 2019 could clock in as an above-average month as well. November has already ushered in three IPOs, which began trading on Friday, Nov. 1st. So if Wall Street maintains this pace, November’s IPO traffic would be in sync with the season’s theme of autumn bounty.

Looking Ahead

Two Chinese IPOs, a bank catering to the digital currency industry and a ride-share app round out this week’s IPO Calendar. Let’s take a look at the 10 deals, organized by pricing and trading dates. (Two carryovers from last week – unit offerings by blank checks LGL Systems Acquisition and Merida Merger – are also on the calendar, listed as pricing expected during the “week of Nov. 4.”)

Monday night pricing for Tuesday trading:

Q&K International Group (QK proposed), based in Shanghai, is a platform for long-term apartment rentals. The company caters to China’s young professionals.

This is an offering of 2.7 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $17 to $19 on the NASDAQ.

Tuesday night pricing for Wednesday trading:

89bio (ETNB proposed), based in San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing a drug to treat NASH, a type of non-alcoholic  liver disease that can cause liver failure.

This is an IPO of 4.4 million shares at $15 to $17 each on the NASDAQ.

Wednesday night pricing for Thursday trading:

36Kr Holdings –(KRKR proposed), based in Beijing, is an online news platform that covers China’s startup companies. In the prospectus, the company says it is expanding to offer online advertising and subscription services.

This is an IPO of 3.6 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $14.50 to $17.50 each on the NASDAQ.

Centogene B.V.  (CNTG proposed), based in Rostock, Germany, has developed a global proprietary rare disease platform with over 2.0 billion weighted data points from over 450,000 patients representing 115 countries, as of Aug. 31, 2019. That’s an average of over 500 data points per patient. The company’s goal is to expedite development of orphan drugs to treat rare diseases.

This is an IPO of 4 million shares at $14 to $16 each on the NASDAQ.

Galera Therapeutics (GRTX proposed), based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, is a biotech whose leading product candidate is a drug to reduce the occurrence of severe mouth sores, a painful side effect of radiation treatment in patients with head and neck cancer.

GFL Environmental Holdings (GFL proposed), based in Vaughan, Ontario, is the fourth-largest diversified environmental services company in North America. Trash collection, recycling and liquid waste management are among the services that GFL offers throughout Canada and in 23 states in the United States. Its initials, GFL, stand for “Green For Life.”

This is an IPO of 87.6 million shares at $20 to $24 each on the New York Stock Exchange.

Silvergate Capital (SI proposed), based in La Jolla, California, is a bank holding company. Its flagship, the Silvergate Bank, serves the digital currency industry.

This is an IPO of 3.7 million shares at $13 to $15 each on the NYSE.

Thursday night pricing for Friday trading:

CNS Pharmaceuticals (CNSP proposed), based in Houston, is a pre-clinical-stage pharmaceutical company working on a drug to treat glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.

This is an IPO of 2.1 million shares at $4 to $5 each on the NASDAQ.

TELA Bio (TELA proposed), based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, is a commercial stage medical technology company focused on designing, developing and marketing a new category of reinforced tissue used in hernia repair, abdominal wall reconstruction and plastic and reconstructive surgery.

This is an IPO of 4 million shares at $14 to $16 each on the NASDAQ.

Week of Nov. 4th

YayYo – (YAYO proposed), based in Beverly Hills, is a holding company for a ride-share application and a car rental business.

This is an offering of 2.5 million shares at $4 each on the NASDAQ.

Week of Nov. 11th

For the week of Nov. 11, 2019, the IPO Calendar is a blank slate. But that could change on Monday morning when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing window opens again for business.

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.