The IPO Buzz: Yoshiharu Prices Upsized IPO at $4.00 – Low End

Labor Day week’s four-day run is wrapping up with one IPO – Yoshiharu Global Co. (YOSH) – upsized to 2.94 million shares and priced on Thursday night, Sept. 8, 2022, at $4.00, the low end of its $4.00-to-$5.00 range.  Yoshiharu raised $11.76 million by selling 490,000 more shares than the 2.45 million in the prospectus. The stock is set to start trading today (Friday, Sept. 9, 2022) on the NASDAQ. EF Hutton was the sole book-runner.

Yoshiharu Global Co. is a California-based chain of 10 Japanese ramen noodle restaurants, predominantly in southern California. Yoshiharu, which opened its first restaurant in 2016, is known for its slow-cooked bone broth and ramen. The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to expand outside California through franchises and to open restaurants in northern California.

Revenue grew to $6.5 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021, from $3.2 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, according to the prospectus. This was “partially attributable to recovery from the negative impact of COVID-19 on 2020 results. Revenue for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019, was approximately $4.1 million, so after the brief downturn for fiscal 2020, the company has recovered and returned to a path of planned growth,” the prospectus says.

Yoshiharu reported a net loss of $1.63 million for the full year of 2021, which was wider than its 2020 net loss of $450,128, the prospectus says.

EF Hutton SPAC IPO Priced

A SPAC IPO – EF Hutton Acquisition Corp. I (EFHTU) – also got done Thursday night (Sept. 8, 2022): 10 million units at $10.00 each to raise $100 million. This was the first SPAC IPO priced in nearly a month. It is the 75th SPAC IPO priced so far in 2022. Each unit consists of one share of common stock, one redeemable warrant to buy one share of common stock at $11.50 per share, and one right to receive 1/8 share of common stock upon the consummation of this SPAC’s initial business combination. The stock and the warrants are expected to start trading Friday on the NASDAQ.

EF Hutton Acquisition Corp. I will focus on consumer and retail companies with enterprise values between $400 million and $1 billion, the prospectus says.

EF Hutton was the sole book-runner of its namesake SPAC IPO. Craig-Hallum served as the qualified independent underwriter to comply with the FINRA rule on “conflict of interest,” the prospectus says.

Benjamin Piggott, an EF Hutton managing director since its inception in June 2020, is the chairman and CEO of EF Hutton Acquisition Corp. I. He previously was the head of corporate development at Laird Superfood (LSF), a plant-based natural food company in Sisters, Oregon. He assisted with raising capital, including Laird Superfood’s IPO on Sept. 23, 2020. He spent 15 years in the investment industry, including 10 years with Fidelity’s Small Cap Team, where he worked as a research analyst and a sector portfolio manager.

Friday Night Pricing

Lichen China Ltd. (LICN proposed), the Cayman Islands holding company of a profitable Chinese financial and taxation service provider, plans to price its IPO tonight (Friday, Sept. 9, 2022):  6.25 million Class A ordinary shares at $4.00 each to raise $25 million. The IPO is expected to start trading on Monday, Sept. 12, on the NASDAQ. Univest Securities is the sole book-runner.

The entity issuing the stock in the IPO is the holding company, Lichen China Ltd., incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

The business, Lichen China, has operated as a “dedicated financial and taxation solution service specialist in China for over 17 years,” the prospectus says.

Week of Sept. 12, 2022

The IPO market gets in full swing next week with the $1.8 billion IPO of Corebridge Financial, Inc. (CRBG proposed), an AIG spin-off, leading an IPO Calendar of nine deals so far. This lineup includes the $153 million biotech IPO of Third Harmonic Bio, Inc. (THRD proposed) as well as a community bank’s $40 million NASDAQ uplisting and other small deals plus a couple of SPACs.

More names could glide onto next week’s IPO Calendar after the SEC’s filing window flips open again on Monday morning.  

Stay tuned.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.)

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board. 

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message. 

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.