WalkMe Ltd. (WKME proposed), an Israeli software company, and Lyell Immunopharma (LYEL proposed), a T cell reprogramming company, are on the IPO marquee for the week before summer officially begins on Sunday, June 20th. Israel and its tech sector are in the IPO limelight after the success of Monday’com’s debut last week. As for biotechs, the flurry of deals – five biotech IPOs added early Monday to this week’s IPO Calendar – indicates that the sector is ready for its summer run.
Twenty deals – 14 IPOs, one NASDAQ uplift from the SIX Swiss Exchange, one NASDAQ uplift from London’s AIM, and four SPACs – were on the IPO Calendar for the week of June 14, 2021, as of updated filings after the the closing bell on Tuesday, June 15. Bankers expect to raise about $3.2 billion, based on mid-point pricing.
Didi Chuxing, often called China’s Uber, signaled what a red-hot summer this could be when it filed its initial prospectus late Thursday afternoon (June 10, 2021) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Wall Street Journal predicted this trend in a story by Corrie Driebusch on Thursday afternoon – published ahead of Didi’s SEC filing – under the headline: Robinhood and Didi to Kick Off a Hot IPO Summer . Didi (DIDI proposed) could raise about $5.6 billion to $7 billion in IPO proceeds, giving the Chinese ride-sharing company an estimated valuation exceeding $70 billion, The WSJ reported.
This week’s IPO action began Monday night with the pricing of a micro-cap preclinical biotech, Alzamend Neuro, from sole book-runner Spartan Capital, and the pricing of two blank check companies, or SPACs – DILA Capital Acquisition and G Squared Ascend II. The expected pricing of AMTD Digital (HKD proposed), a spinoff by Hong Kong-based brokerage AMTD, did not occur; the IPO has been rescheduled for next week.
More investors, though, are focused on WalkMe, Ltd. (WKME proposed), a digital cloud platform company based in Tel Aviv. The IPO of just 9.3 million shares at $29 to $32 each is set for pricing Tuesday night. The stock will start trading Wednesday on the NASDAQ.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are the joint book-runners.
WalkMe, based in Tel Aviv, is a SaaS business. WalkMe says its cloud-based Digital Adoption Platform lets users – a customer’s employees and customers – navigate websites, SaaS applications and mobile apps through a digital GPS-like experience . (SaaS stands for Software as a Service.)
Worth noting: WalkMe is NOT profitable. It had a net loss of $45 million on revenue of $148.3 million in 2020.
Lyell Immunopharma(LYEL proposed) is a South San Francisco-based preclinical biotech company focused on developing T cell therapies to cure cancer patients with solid tumors. Lyell’s lead product candidates include an IV-administered T cell therapy to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer and triple-negative breast cancer.
Lyell’s IPO consists of 25 million shares at $16 to $18 each. The IPO is scheduled for pricing Wednesday night. Lyell’s stock is expected to start trading Thursday on the NASDAQ.
Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are the joint book-runners.
Worth noting: Lyell Immunopharma is not profitable. The company had a net loss of $230.28 million on revenues of just $8.95 million for the last 12 months.
Why would anyone be willing to overlook a net loss that’s nearly 26 times revenues?
In Lyell’s case, the answer could boil down to just three letters: GSK. Lyell has a collaboration agreement with GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), the big British pharmaceutical company that also owns about 14 percent of the company pre-IPO, the prospectus says.
Ambrx Biopharma (AMAM proposed) is among five biotechs that filed IPO terms early today ahead of pricing Thursday night – to start trading Friday, June 18th. Ambrx, based in La Jolla, California, raised $200 million last November in a private funding round that included BlackRock and Fidelity.
Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and Cowen are the joint book-runners.
Final Full Week of June
Seven IPOs have been scheduled so far for the week of June 21,2021, which is the final full trading week of June. Full Truck Alliance, Ltd. (YMM proposed), known as China’s Uber for trucks, made a big splash after the market’s close on Tuesday with its F-1/A filing revealing the terms for its $1.5 billion IPO next week. First Advantage Corp. (FA proposed) provides tech solutions to businesses for performing criminal background checks, drug and health screening and other screening. Sprinklr (CXM proposed) supplies enterprise software for customer experience management. Bright Health Group, a health InsurTech company backed by Tiger Global, and Doximity, a leading cloud-based platform for U.S. physicians, also have scheduled their IPOs next week. A tiny biotech deal, Acurx Pharmaceuticals (ACXP proposed), is also set for pricing next week. AMTD Digital (HKD proposed) is now on next week’s calendar as well, carried over from this week.
More names are likely to pop onto next week’s IPO Calendar, however, as the filings keep coming in through the SEC’s filing window.
Stay tuned.
(Editor’s Note: This column was updated Wednesday morning, June 16, to show that seven deals are set for next week. The column was previously updated after the closing bell on Tuesday afternoon to show that the IPO Calendar this week now totals 20 deals.)
For more information, please see the IPO Calendar. (You can click the hyperlinks in the company names on the IPO Calendar and those links will take you to the IPO profiles on IPOScoop.com.)
(Never trade on proposed symbols. You might wind up owning something on the OTC Bulletin Board.)
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