IPO Roundup: Yeti Holdings, ARYA Sciences, and China’s scooter start-up Niu to tap capital markets

Yeti Holdings Inc, the maker of Rambler mugs, $400 coolers and outdoor gear, filed for an IPO Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to raise as much as $100 million.

The Austin Business Journal suggested the $100 million number is most probably a “placeholder” for a much larger $300 million IPO.

A small private-equity firm is on the precipice of getting a big payoff from its bet on Yeti. If all goes as hoped, the Cortec Group, could make a profit on paper of about $3.3 billion in the upcoming IPO, according to Market Watch.

The company is seeking a valuation of $5 billion in its IPO, according to the news outlet. Cortec bought a roughly two-thirds stake in 2012 for about $67 million.

Yeti was founded nearly a decade ago by Texas brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders who sold coolers to Gulf Coast hunters and fishermen, but the company has since grown quickly with its popular mass-market Yeti brand coolers, mugs, waterproof blankets and cool camping gear.

Yeti first sought to go public in 2016 via a $100 million IPO, but promptly withdrew its offering citing “market conditions.”

READ: IPO Roundup: Bumble, Elastic, Y-mAbs Therapeutics to tap the capital markets, while Dell reviews its options

The new IPO filing gives a peak at revenue. For 2016, Yeti reported revenue of $818.9 million and net income of $48.8 million. That fell to revenue of $639.2 million and net income of $15.4 million in 2017. Yeti sales appear to be picking up steam again, as revenue for the first six months of 2018 is $341.5 million, compared to $254.1 million in the first half of 2017.

Yeti plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the “YETI” ticker. Meanwhile, Igloo Products Corp, Coleman Co and others have introduced new coolers with features like Yeti’s at lower prices.

ARYA Sciences Acquisition Corp, a blank check company seeking to acquire a healthcare business, is planning to offer 12.5 million units at $10 a unit to raise $125 million.

The New York-based company was founded in 2018 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ARYAU. Jefferies and Chardan Capital Markets are the lead underwriters.

Beijing-based start-up Niu Technologies, which is trying to make electric scooters as uber cool as Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has made the electric car is looking to go public in New York.

Niu Technologies, which designs and sells smart electric scooters, filed for a $150 million initial public offering in the US. American depository shares are set to be traded on the Nasdaq under the “NIU” ticker.

Produced exclusively out of the southeastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, Niu scooters stand out from other brands in China for their sporty design and technology that guards against theft. It’s billed as a “smart” scooter for good reason: Niu owners can use a smartphone app to track the real-time GPS location of a scooter, and get notifications whenever the battery is removed, or the scooter is being tampered with.

The IPO for the Chinese electric scooter maker comes barely two weeks after the high-profile IPO of Chinese electric car maker NIO Limited (NYSE:NIO) which raised $1bn.

Like Tesla, Niu still makes a loss but its net loss margin shrunk from 65.6% in 2016 to 24% last year, or 184.7 million yuan ($27.9 million), according to Niu’s prospectus.

Niu Technologies was co-founded in 2014 by Baidu’s former chief technology officer, Li Yinan, and Token Yilin Hu, formerly of Microsoft China who crowdfunded their enterprise. Niu now has stores in more than 150 Chinese cities and distributors in 23 other countries, especially Europe.  

Investor appetite for IPOs has powered a surge in new listings. More than 180 companies raised over $50 billion in IPOs in the US in the first three quarters, putting 2018 on track to be the busiest year for new issuance by both measures since 2014, according to Dealogic.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors