The IPO Buzz: Working Up An Appetite

Just three deals are on this week’s IPO Calendar – and one is a household name that hungry investors have anticipated for awhile. Albertsons Companies (ACI proposed) is a major U.S. supermarket chain, set to go public late in the week in a deal that could raise $1.25 billion.

The other two names on this week’s IPO Calendar are Agora (API proposed), a Chinese API developer, and a blank check called Brilliant Acquisition (BRLIU proposed).

But Wall Street believes that more names could jump onto this week’s IPO Calendar when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing window opens again for business on Monday morning, June 22nd. That expectation is based on what happened last Monday, June 15th, when four IPOs appeared at the SEC’s filing window that morning. All four were priced Thursday evening, June 18th, to trade on Friday, June 19th. That’s how today’s IPO market has been coming together.

Now let’s take a look at this week’s IPO Calendar, when bankers expect to raise a total of $1.6 billion. The IPOs are organized by pricing and trading dates.

Monday evening pricing for Tuesday trading

Brilliant Acquisition, based in Shanghai, is a blank check company formed recently to focus on businesses that have their primary operations located in the Asia-Pacific region.

The company plans to offer 4 million units at $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Thursday evening pricing for Friday trading

Agora, based in Shanghai, was founded to develop APIs for facilitating voice and video communications between people online and in real time. Agora pioneered the Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service, or RTE-PaaS. It is considered the global leader in the industry. The company plans to offer 17.5 million American Depositary Shares at $16 to $18 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Note: Selected investors have issued indications of interest to buy up to $160 million of the ADS, or 54.1 percent of this $297.5 million IPO.

Albertsons Companies, based in Boise, Idaho, is one of the largest food retailers in the United States, with 2,252 stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia. The company operates 20 iconic banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw’s, Star Market, United Supermarkets, Market Street and Haggen.

Insiders are offering all of the 65.8 million shares at $18 to $20 each to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The company will not receive any of the IPO proceeds, the prospectus notes.

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

Heavy Traffic

The IPO traffic was brisk last week. Six IPOs got priced, while nine companies filed plans to go public, and 13 companies amended their registrations with the SEC.

For details, please click on IPO Traffic: Week Ending June 19, 2020

June Wrap & July Start

This brings us to the week of June 29th. Yes, we do have a single IPO on the calendar, scheduled for pricing June 30th to trade on July 1st. This will be just a four-day work week for Wall Street. The U.S. stock market will be closed on Friday, July 3rd, for observance of the U.S. Independence Day holiday since July 4th falls on a Saturday this year.

Nevertheless, there is always Monday morning and a chance for bankers to add more names to the IPO Calendar for the week of June 29th when the SEC’s filing window opens again for business on Monday morning, June 22nd.

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.