The IPO Buzz: An IPO Buffet

Codiak BioSciences, Array Technologies and MINISO Group are among the enticing names on this week’s IPO Calendar of eight deals. It’s an IPO buffet. Healthcare, solar energy, retail and SPAC deals are in the offing. Bankers expect to raise $1.72 billion.

Healthcare is the dominant IPO sector again this week, accounting for four of the eight deals on tap. The early buzz picked up strong interest in Codiak BioSciences (CDAK proposed), a development-stage biopharmaceutical company working on a new class of drugs for cancer and other diseases.

Array Technologies (ARRY proposed) is a profitable company that makes ground-mounting systems called trackers, which let solar energy panels follow the sun. This company is attracting some favorable attention from IPO investors.

MINISO Group Holding Limited (MNSO proposed) is a profitable and fast-growing retail chain in China that specializes in lifestyle products. As one IPO savant put it at press time: “It’s China, over 4,200 stores, and it has profits. I like it.”

Monday, Oct. 12, is Columbus Day, a federal holiday. Banks will be closed for the holiday. (In some jurisdictions, the holiday is now called Indigenous Peoples Day.)

But come Monday, it will be business as usual for the U.S. stock market. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ will be open.

The stock market’s rally is providing friendly footing for IPOs. The S&P 500 finished the best week since July on hopes for a stimulus package, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Kronos Bio, Inc. (KRON) was the best-performing IPO last week. The stock closed on Friday, Oct. 9, its first day of trading, at $27.07, up 42.47 percent from its $19 IPO price.

Boom in SEC Filings

Business at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing window was as brisk last week as the line at Baskin-Robbins on a sizzling summer day. Thirty-four companies filed to go public: 12 traditional IPOs and 22 special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), also known as blank check companies.

Root Inc. (ROOT proposed), a car, home and renters’ insurance company that uses a mobile app, was among the companies that filed to go public last week. Affirm, a company that provides point-of-sale credit to consumers for online purchases, filed confidentially to go public. They are part of the wave of InsureTech and FinTech IPOs that are popular with investors this year, according to TechCrunch.

Revisiting a $5.5 Billion Week

Sixteen IPOs were priced last week, raising about $5.5 billion. Nearly 90 percent of that dollar volume came from 10 SPACs (see below). In addition, two uplift deals – step-up listings to the NYSE and the NASDAQ – raised almost $208 million, bringing the week’s total volume to $5.7 billion. Here is the IPOScoop tally:

*Six traditional IPOs raised $679.58 million. (Four healthcare IPOs – Aziyo Biologies ($49.98 million), Kronos Bio ($250.8 million), Shattuck Labs ($202.3 million) and Spruce BioSciences ($90 million)  plus one Chinese online education company’s IPO –  iHuman ($84 million) and one REIT – Presidio Property Trust ($2.5 million). (See 2020 Pricings on IPOScoop.com.)

*Two uplifts raised $207.8 million. One deal, fuboTV (FUBO), an uplift to the NYSE from the OTC Venture Market, raised $183.0 million, while another deal, Intrusion (INTZ), an uplift to the NASDAQ from the OTCQB, raised $24.8 million. IPOScoop lists these deals in our IPO Index only as a courtesy; we do not provide SCOOP ratings on uplifts.

*Ten SPACs raised $4.8 billion, with $2.1 billion – or nearly 44 percent of that total – coming from three tech-focused SPACs (designated IV, V and VI) organized by Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings.

Looking at a $1.7 Billion Week Ahead

Let’s take a look at this week’s eight deals, organized by pricing and trading dates.

Monday night pricing for Tuesday trading:

Two SPAC deals are set for pricing Monday night, with estimated total proceeds of $180 million. Both are expected to start trading Tuesday on the NASDAQ.

5:01 Acquisition   (FVAM proposed) is a biotech-focused SPAC, also known as a blank check company, based in San Francisco. This is an IPO of 8 million shares (yes, shares – not units) at $10 each. BofA Securities is the sole manager.

Mallard Acquisition (MACUU proposed), based in Cornelius, North Carolina, intends to focus its search for a target business in the value-added distribution, industrial specialty services and differentiated manufacturing sectors. This is an IPO of 10 million units at $10 each. Chardan is the sole manager.

Tuesday night pricing for Wednesday trading:

Codiak BioSciences (CDAK proposed) is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of exosome-based therapeutics, a new class of medicines to treat cancer (solid tumors) as well as neuromuscular and infectious diseases). The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Exosomes are tiny vesicles found in all body fluids; they play a major role in carrying messages and molecules from one cell to another, in a target-specific manner, according to this article by Dr. Ian Dixon, the founder and managing director of exopharm.com.)

Note: Codiak BioSciences has collaboration agreements with two pharmaceutical companies. (See the prospectus by clicking on the IPO Profile on IPOScoop.com.)

This is an IPO of 5.5 million shares at $14 to $16 each to trade on the NASDAQ. The IPO would raise $82.5 million, if priced at the mid-point of its range. Goldman Sachs, Evercore ISI, William Blair and Wedbush PacGrow are the joint book-runners.

Wednesday night pricing for Thursday trading:

Array Technologies (ARRY proposed) is an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based solar energy company. It is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of ground-mounting systems used in solar energy projects. Its main product is a single-axis tracker that moves solar panels throughout the day to keep an optimal orientation to the sun, which boosts their energy production and cuts energy costs.

Note: Array Technologies earned net income of $110.6 million on revenue of $975.1 million in the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 33.8 million shares at $19 to $21 each to trade on the NASDAQ.  The IPO would raise $675.0 million, if priced at the mid-point of its range. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Guggenheim Securities and Morgan Stanley are the joint book-runners.

MINISO Group Holding (MNSO proposed) is a chain of over 4,200 sleek stores in China that features lifestyle products that appeal to consumers ages 18 to 25. Its inventory ranges from beauty and cosmetics products to fashion, home furnishings, kitchen items and consumer electronics. Licensed merchandise (Marvel and Hello Kitty) is a popular part of its product mix, according to this story published by Forbes.com.

Note: MINISO Group earned net income of $137.4 million on revenue of $1.27 billion in the last 12 months. The company is backed by Tencent, which has China’s largest social network platform.

This is an IPO of 30.4 million shares at $16.50 to $18.50 each to trade on the NYSE. The IPO would raise $532.0 million, if priced at the mid-point of its range. Goldman Sachs and BofA Securities are the joint lead managers.

Spinal Elements Holdings (SPEL proposed) is a Carlsbad, California-based medical device company focused on the design, development and commercialization of systems, products and technologies for spine surgery procedures. The company emphasizes products intended for use in minimally invasive procedures.

Note: After the IPO, funds affiliated with Kohlberg & Co. will hold shares of the company’s common stock representing a majority of its voting power. The company had a net loss of $39.0 million on revenue of $92.6 million in the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 7.7 million shares at $13 to $15 each to trade on the NASDAQ. The IPO would raise $107.8 million, if priced at the mid-point of its range. Credit Suisse, Baird and Stifel are the joint book-runners.

Thursday night pricing for Friday trading:

Kiromic Biopharma  (KRBP proposed) is a gene-editing company with a focus on immune-oncology. The company is based in Houston, Texas.

Note: The company has not generated any revenue. It had a net loss of $3.73 million for the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 1.15 million shares at $12 to $14 each to trade on the NASDAQ. The IPO would raise $14.95 million, if priced at the mid-point of its range. ThinkEquity (a division of Fordham Financial Management) is the lead manager.

Praxis Precision Medicines (PRAX proposed) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with three product candidates in clinical development – a drug (PRAX-114) to treat depression; a drug (PRAX-944) to treat essential tremor (ET) and a drug (PRAX-561) to treat a broad range of rare devastating CNS (central nervous system) disorders, including severe pediatric epilepsy. Praxis Precision Medicines is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Note: Praxis Precision Medicines has collaboration and license agreements. (See the prospectus.)  The company has not generated any revenue. It had a net loss of $37.9 million in the last 12 months.

This is an IPO of 7.4 million shares at $16 to $18 each to trade on the NASDAQ. The IPO would raise $125.8 million, if priced at the mid-point of its range. Cowen, Evercore ISI, Piper Sandler and Wedbush PacGrow are the joint book-runners.

(For more information on these companies, please see the IPO profiles on the IPOScoop.com website.)

Week of Oct. 19^th

Nothing is scheduled yet for the week of Oct. 19. (That date will mark 33 years since  the 1987 stock market crash, also known as Black Monday.)

Next week’s blank slate, however, could fill up quickly on Monday morning, Oct. 12^th, when the SEC’s filing window opens again for business.

Stay tuned.

(Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. You might wind up owning something on the OTC Bulletin Board.)

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.