IPO Roundup: LogicBio Therapeutics prices IPO below range, while data-mining specialist Palantir weighs giant public offering

Genome editing company LogicBio Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:LOGC) cut the price of its IPO Friday and sold more shares to raise $70 million to fund human tests of its experimental gene therapy for a rare liver disorder.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company sold 7 million shares at $10 a share to raise the $70 million. It had earlier indicated that it would issue 5.77 million shares between $12 and $14.

Since its founding in 2016, the genome editing company has targeted rare genetic diseases, including HIV, clotting disorders and metabolic disorders.

It’s been a banner year for IPOs with 161 companies having priced so far this year, a nearly 50% jump from the same period last year, according to research firm Renaissance Capital. Biotech IPOs have been booming with 61 companies in the health care sector going public.

Biotech and pharma companies credit the business-friendly tax package for making it possible for Big Pharma to pour cash into licensing deals, mergers and acquisitions — making the prospect of rich exit strategies for biotech companies more tangible.

IPO Roundup: Uber and Lyft race towards IPOs as banks line up

Meanwhile, data-mining specialist Palantir Technologies Inc, co-founded by famed investor Peter Thiel, is weighing an initial public offering likely to be among the largest in recent years, reported the Wall Street Journal.

“Palantir is discussing with investment banks Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley plans to go public as soon as the second half of 2019,” people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Some bankers have told the firm it could go public with a valuation of as much as $41 billion — depending in part on the timing.

Palantir, founded in 2004, has remained private for so long that employees find it hard to cash out private stakes, and this has contributed to some employees’ decisions to leave, said the Journal.

The Palantir IPO discussions come amid reports earlier this week that rivals Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc which have been duking it out in the fast-growing ride-hailing business may now be racing toward the public markets in the first half of 2019.

Uber has received proposals from top investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley that value the company as much as $120 billion in an IPO, while Lyft’s valuation is expected to top the $15.1 billion it was valued at earlier this year, though private valuations can change until the company prices its initial public offering.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors