The IPO Buzz: Prescription for Success

GoodRx, the digital drug price-comparison site, leads an IPO Calendar of 12 deals this week. Bankers expect to raise about $2.7 billion.

The IPO pros see GoodRx Holdings (GDRX proposed) as “the deal of the week.” It’s in the sweet spot of technology and healthcare. Those two sectors accounted for four of the five best-performing IPOs priced last week, based on gains from their IPO prices as of Friday’s close, as IPOScoop data shows:

*Outset Medical (OM), the portable dialysis tech company,  a moonshot-plus, up 122 percent;

*Snowflake (SNOW), the data cloud company, a moonshot, up 100 percent;

*COMPASS Pathways plc (CMPS), aka the “magic mushroom” deal, up 70.6 percent;

*JFrog Ltd. (FROG), the “liquid software” company, up 47.2 percent, and

*StepStone Group, Inc. (STEP), the outlier from the financial sector, up 38.9 percent.

GoodRx has something that’s rare among the latest wave of companies rushing to go public this year: profits. The company, founded in 2011, has been profitable since 2016, as Christina Farr of CNBC reported. GoodRx is on the CNBC Disruptor 50 list of companies shaking up the status quo.

A total of 23 deals got priced last week, including 14 traditional IPOs and nine SPACs. Bankers raised a total of about $10.8 billion – the busiest week of the year so far. Those nine SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies, produced about $2.4 billion in proceeds, or about 22 percent of the week’s total volume.

Technology delivered the “Wow!” factor, with Snowflake raising $3.36 billion in the biggest IPO of the year so far.  Four of last week’s 14 IPOs, including Snowflake, were tech companies or tech-related businesses.

It was a blizzard of filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week, with about two dozen companies filing to go public.

Another Big Week

A dozen deals are on this week’s IPO Calendar, including a SPAC that’s on for tonight and one SPAC carried over from last week. Most of the action is on Tuesday night, when six IPOs are set for pricing.

Let’s take a look at this week’s IPO slate, organized by pricing and trading dates.

Monday night pricing for Tuesday morning trading:

PMV Consumer Acquisition   (PMVC.U proposed) is a new blank check company or SPAC that intends to “focus on the consumer globally as well as the technology, infrastructure and supply chain components that enable consumer consumption,” the prospectus says. The SPAC’s search for targets will include companies with an enterprise value between $200 million and $3.5 billion. The company is based in Palm Beach, Florida.

This is an IPO of 17.5 million units at $10 each to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. UBS Investment Bank and BTIG are the joint lead managers.

Tuesday night pricing for Wednesday morning trading:

Amesite (AMST proposed) is a Detroit-based company that provides an AI-driven platform for online courses used by businesses for employee training as well as by colleges and K-12 schools.  The company was founded by University of Michigan alumni. Amesite has a net loss of about $4.2 million, the prospectus says. The company has raised about $13 million in private funding.

This is a micro-cap deal of 3.1 million shares at $4.50 to $5.50 to trade on the NASDAQ.

Bentley Systems  (BSY proposed) is a leading global provider of software for infrastructure engineering.  Founded in 1984 by the Bentley brothers, this profitable company has a market cap of about $4.7 billion. It’s based in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Worth noting: Siemens International Holding B.V. owns a 14.4 percent stake in this company through its ownership of Class B common stock before the IPO, the prospectus says.  Bloomberg reported that Siemens is considering a bid to acquire Bentley Systems, according to a story published Sept. 7.

This is an IPO of 10.8 million shares of Class A common stock at $17 to $19 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Corsair Gaming (CRSR proposed) caters to gamers, aka “digital athletes,” with its consoles, streaming peripherals, microphones and other high-tech gear. Founded in 1994, Corsair Gaming has a market cap of about $1.6 billion and it’s profitable. The company got some attention recently from The Verge, which said it’s bottom line has benefited from the COVID-10 pandemic keeping more people at home.

This is an IPO of 14 million shares at $16 to $18 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

FG New America Acquisition  (FGNA.U proposed)  is a SPAC deal carried over from last week. Joseph Moglia will be the chair of this Itasca, Illinois-based SPAC or blank check company. Moglia is also the chairman of both TD Ameritrade and Fundamental Global Investors, a private investment firm. Piper Sandler and ThinkEquity are the joint lead managers.

This is an IPO of 22.5 million units at $10 each to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

GoodRx Holdings  (GDRX proposed), based in Santa Monica, California, says it “started with a price comparison tool for prescriptions, offering consumers free access to lower prices on their medication. We wanted to help ensure that no parent had to choose between their child’s next meal and their life-saving medication.”

Worth noting:  GoodRx has a market cap of nearly $1 billion. It reported $89.5 million in net income on $627.7 million in revenue for the last 12 months. The company was founded in 2011. Since then, it’s expanded into telehealth ,  a segment that is thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic era of social distancing.

This is an IPO of 34.6 million shares at $24 to $28 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Laird Superfood  (LSF proposed) makes plant-based coffee creamers and other items. This is a start-up company founded by surfing legend Laird Hamilton and his surfing buddy, Paul Hodge. The company is based in Sisters, Oregon.

Worth noting: Danone has a 13.3 percent stake in Laird Superfood through stock purchased by its investment arm, the prospectus says. Founded in 2015, Laird Superfood had a net loss of $13.5 million on $18.75 million in revenue in the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 2.2 million shares at $18 to $20 each to trade on the NYSE – American.

Wednesday night pricing for Thursday morning trading:

Taysha Gene Therapies, Inc.  (TSHA proposed) is a Dallas-based gene therapy company focused on developing treatments for patients with Tay-Sachs disease and Rett Syndrome.  Tay-Sachs disease is a rare genetic disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Rett Syndrome is one of the most common genetic causes of severe intellectual disability.

Worth noting: Taysha Gene Therapies has a partnership with the University of Texas Southwestern. The company, founded in 2019, had a net loss of $26.7 million on no revenue for the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 6.6 million shares at $18 to $20 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Thursday night pricing for Friday morning trading:

Graybug Vision  (GRAY proposed) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for two diseases that can cause blindness – wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). The company is based in Redwood City, California.

This is an IPO of 4.7 million shares at $15 to $17 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Hygo Energy Transition Ltd. (HYGO proposed) is a Bermuda-based company that hauls low-cost LNG (liquefied natural gas) to under-served countries. It operates an LNG carrier terminal in Brazil.

Worth noting: Golar LNG (GLNG) owns a 50 percent stake in Hygo Energy before the IPO, the prospectus says. Hygo Energy reported a net loss of $68.62 million on $43.96 million in revenue for the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 23.1 million shares at $18 to $21 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Orphazyme A/S (ORPH proposed) is an uplift to the NASDAQ from NASDAQ Copenhagen. This is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company working on novel therapeutics to treat rare neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

This is an uplift IPO of 7.6 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $13.13 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

PMV Pharmaceuticals  (PMVP proposed) is a precision oncology company, based in Cranbury, New Jersey. The company is pioneering the discovery and development of small molecule tumor-agnostic therapies targeting p53 mutations. Its lead product candidate, PC 14586, is targeting a gene mutation associated with breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer as well as colorectal, pancreatic and ovarian cancers.

This is an IPO of 7.4 million shares at $16 to $18 each to trade on the NASDAQ .

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

September’s Swan Song

Palantir Technologies and Asana, Inc. – both direct listings – are scheduled to start trading on the NYSE as September wraps up. Palantir expects to start trading on the Big Board on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and Asana will make its NYSE debut on Wednesday, Sept. 30. But more names could land on the IPO Calendar for this week or next, in keeping with the trend of rush-hour traffic at the SEC’s filing window.

Stay tuned.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums), is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.