The IPO Buzz: Healthcare, SPACs & Sports

A trio of healthcare IPOs hopped on to the IPO Calendar early today. A flurry of five SPACs followed suit. They joined Aziyo Biologics, a medical products company’s IPO; fuboTV, a sports-themed uplift to the NYSE, and another SPAC, already on tap. A small Chinese education company also set an IPO pricing date.

In a whirlwind, this week’s IPO Calendar grew to 12 deals by mid-morning from just a few names before sunrise. Bankers expect to raise about $2.9 billion.

Kronos Bio, Shattuck Labs and Spruce Biosciences disclosed terms in SEC filings early Monday morning. These names are attracting investor interest, along with Aziyo Biologics.

October is off to a strong start. A total of 18 companies – seven IPOs and 11 SPACs – made their debuts on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2.

Pulmonx Corp. (LUNG) scored a moonshot on Oct.1, its first day of trading. The stock closed on Thursday, Oct. 1, at $39.31, up 106.89 percent from its IPO price at $19 on Sept. 30. On Friday, Oct. 2, Pulmonx closed on NASDAQ at $41.90, up 120.53 percent from its IPO price. (A moonshot is an opening-day gain of 100 percent or more from the IPO price.)

IPO investors loved the story of Pulmonx. The medical device company makes the  Zephyr Valve, which can be implanted in the lungs of people suffering from severe emphysema, a form of COPD, to help them breathe more easily. Boston Scientific Corp. is a major shareholder. The Pulmonx IPO was increased last week to 10 million shares, from its initial size of 6.7 million shares, and priced $3 above its $14-to-$16 range.

The strong performance of Pulmonx bodes well for this week’s healthcare IPOs.

There’s no sign yet of any let-up in the torrent of IPO filings by special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, also known as blank check companies. Six SPACs are scheduled for pricing so far this week. Meanwhile, SPACs accounted for more than half of the 30 new filings last week at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Dozen Deals

Let’s take a look at this week’s 12 deals, organized by pricing and trading dates.

Monday night pricing for Tuesday trading:

FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp.  (FMACU proposed)

FirstMark Horizon Acquisition, based in New York, intends to focus its search on target businesses in the technology industry. Its management team is led by the founders and executives of FirstMark Capital, a prominent technology venture capital firm founded in 2008. FirstMark has backed entrepreneurs who have created leading companies, many valued at over $1 billion; the list includes Shopify, Pinterest, DraftKings and Airbnb.

This is a SPAC or blank-check IPO of 30 million units at $10 each to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tuesday night pricing for Wednesday trading:

Montes Archimedes Acquisition (MAACU proposed) is a Menlo Park, California-based SPAC that intends to focus its investment efforts across the healthcare industry.

This is an IPO of 50 million units at $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

NextGen Acquisition (NGACU proposed) is a Boca Raton, Florida-based SPAC that intends to focus its search for targets on the industrial and healthcare sectors.

This is an IPO of 35 million units at $10 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

TPG Pace Beneficial Finance (TPGY.U proposed) is a Fort Worth, Texas-based SPAC or blank check company whose sponsor is an affiliate of TPG, a leading global alternative investment firm. TPG had over $79 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2020.

This is an IPO of 35 million units at $10 each to trade on the NYSE.

TPG Pace Tech Opportunities (PACE.U proposed) is a Fort Worth, Texas-based SPAC whose sponsor is an affiliate of TPG. Some of TPG’s previous investments include Airbnb, Box, Survey Monkey and Uber.

This is an IPO of 45 million units at $10 each to trade on the NYSE.

Wednesday night pricing for Thursday trading:

Aziyo Biologics  (AZYO proposed) is a commercial-stage regenerative medicine company, based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Its core products are the CanGaroo, the first and only natural biologic envelope designed to help reduce complications with implants of pacemakers and defibrillators; FiberCel Fiber Viable Bone Matrix, ViBone and OsteGro V for spine and orthopedic procedures; SimpliDerm, a pre-hydrated human acellular dermal matrix for soft tissue repair, and a portfolio of extracellular matrices for use in vascular and cardiac repair. The company has commercial relationships with Boston Scientific, Medtronic and other major medical companies to promote and sell some of its core products.

This is an IPO of 2.94 million shares at $16 to $18 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

fuboTV, Inc. (FUBO proposed) is the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform. Formerly known as FaceBank Group, fuboTV offers subscribers a live TV streaming service for $59.99 per month. The base plan features more than 100 channels across sports, news and entertainment. In the summer of 2020, fuboTV added ESPN and ABC and other top programming from Disney.

This is not an IPO. This is an uplift to the NYSE from the OTCQB Venture Market. This is an offering of 15 million shares at $9 to $11 each.

Thursday night pricing for Friday trading:

iHuman (IH proposed) is a Chinese online education company that caters to children ages 3 to 8. The Beijing-based company says it is ranked No. 1 among online childhood edutainment providers in China in terms of paying users and MAUs (monthly active users) for the first half of 2020, according to a Frost & Sullivan report.

This is an IPO of 7 million shares at $11 to $13 each to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Kronos Bio, Inc. (KRON proposed) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company whose leading drug product candidate, entospletinib (ENTO), has been tested in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. The San Mateo, California-based company plans to start a Phase 2/3 clinical trial in 2021 of ENTO in newly diagnosed AML patients.

This is an IPO of 10.3 million shares at $16 to $18 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Shattuck Labs, Inc. (STTK proposed) is an Austin, Texas-based clinical biotech company pioneering the development of dual-sided fusion proteins as an entirely new class of biologic medicine. Its lead wholly owned product candidate, SL-172154, is being tested in a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with ovarian cancer.

This is an IPO of 10 million shares at $14 to $16 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

Spruce Biosciences, Inc. (SPRB proposed) is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel therapies for rare endocrine disorders. It is developing its wholly owned drug product candidate, tildacerfont, as the potential first non-steroidal therapy for patients with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or classic CAH. Spruce Biosciences is based in Daly City, California.

This is an IPO of 5 million shares at $14 to $16 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

 “Week of Oct. 5” Pricing

OTR Acquisition  (OTRAU proposed) is a new blank check company or SPAC, based in Miami, that intends to focus its search on target businesses with enterprise values of approximately $750 million to $2.5 billion.

This is an IPO of 25 million units at $20 each to trade on the NASDAQ.

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

A Peek at Mid-October

Nothing is scheduled yet for the next two weeks of October. But that could change in a heartbeat as the week unfolds.

Stay tuned.

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.

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.