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Three of the seven IPOs were medically related.
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Seven companies went public Friday as the IPO tidal wave continued, with several deals closing at or near their offer prices.
So far this week, 19 companies have gone public, in one of the busiest times for new issues. On Thursday, six companies listed their shares, including
Couchbase
(ticker: BASE) and Absci (ABSI), which both rose in their debuts. Friday’s group included
Caribou Biosciences,
Core & Main, Cytek Biosciences, Gambling.com,
Outbrain,
SOPHiA GENETICS,
and Xponential Fitness.
Core & Main and Xponential traded on the New York Stock Exchange while the rest opened on the Nasdaq.
The surge of deals comes as growth companies continue to receive high valuations from public equity markets. More than 600 IPOs, including 379 blank-check companies, had priced as of July 23, raising $210.3 billion, according to Dealogic. This compares to 132 IPOs, including 50 blank checks, totaling nearly $59 billion for the same time in 2020.
Core & Main
(CNM) delivered the best debut Friday. Shares opened at $21.70 and closed at $23.70, up nearly 19% from the offer price.
Core & Main is a specialized distributor of water, wastewater, storm-drainage, and fire-protection products. The company raised $697 million late Thursday after selling 34.9 million shares at $20 each, the bottom of its $20 to $23 price range. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the private-equity firm, acquired Core & Main for $2.5 billion in 2017. CD&R will have nearly 80% of voting power after the IPO, the prospectus for the deal said.
Caribou (CRBU), which increased the size of its deal twice, also opened. Shares kicked off at $17.65 and ended at $16.32, up 2% from its offer price.
The Berkeley, Calif., company provides genome-editing technology to develop cell therapies that treat diseases. Jennifer Doudna, who co-founded Caribou, is a co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Caribou had initially filed to offer 13.5 million shares at $14 to $16 each, which it boosted to 17 million on Thursday. It ended up selling 19 million shares at $16 each, the top of its price range.
Shares of
Cytek
(CTKB), which also expanded its offering, rose in their aftermarket. The stock kicked off at $20.10 and closed at $18.76, up more than 10% from its offer price. Cytek had filed to offer about 14.6 million shares; it sold about 16.7 million shares at $17 each, the midpoint of its $16 to $18 price range.
Cytek sells cell analysis tools to pharmaceutical and biopharma companies and other researchers.
Xponential Fitness (XPOF) closed at $12.25 Friday, up 2% from its offer price. Xponential had filed to offer 13.3 million shares at $14 to $16, but ended up selling 10 million shares at $12.
Launched in 2017, Xponential Fitness is a fitness franchiser. It buys up fitness brands like Pure Barre, Club Pilates, Rumble, and Yoga Six. It has more than 1,750 studios and more than 1,400 franchisees, its prospectus said. Mark Grabowski, Xponential’s chairman, will have 39% combined voting power after the IPO, the prospectus said.
John Meloun, Xponential’s chief financial officer, said the company plans to use proceeds from the IPO to reduce its leverage. Debt stood at $213 million before the IPO and will fall, after the offering, to about $60 million net debt, Meloun told Barron’s.
The IPO will put Xponential “in a position of strength to grow from this point forward as we expand our footprint,” Meloun said.
Outbrain (OB), the web advertising platform, initially traded above its offer price, with the stock hitting a high of $20.99. It lost those gains during the afternoon and closed at its $20 IPO price.
Outbrain sold 8 million shares at $20, well below the range of $24 to $26 it had told investors to expect. Founded in 2006, Outbrain matches media audiences with personalized content and ads, such as those that typically appear at the bottom of articles on CNN, MSN and Sky News. Some 20,000 advertisers use the platform, the prospectus said.
Gambling.com (GAMB) had traded as high at $8.75 a share but reversed course during the afternoon, ending at its $8 IPO pricing.
Gambling.com provides marketing services for the gambling industry. The Charlotte, North Carolina, company generates revenues by referring online gamblers to online gambling operators, its prospectus said. It raised $42 million after selling 5.25 million shares at $8 each, the bottom of its $8 to $9 price range.
SOPHiA (SOPH) was the only company Friday whose shares fell below their IPO price. The stock opened at $18.45 and closed at $16.76, down nearly 7% from its offer price. This makes SOPHiA a so-called broken deal. The Swiss biotechnology company provides a cloud-based analytics platform that is used by about 780 hospitals, laboratories, and biopharma customers for clinical genomics. SOPHiA raised about $234 million after selling 13 million shares at $18, the middle of its $17 to $19 price range.
Write to Luisa Beltran at [email protected]