Welcome to IPO This Week for the week of February 1st. As always, we’ll talk about all companies
scheduled to go public for the upcoming 7 seven days. Today we have 9 companies that
I’ve confirmed as of the time of this recording that we’re going to cover, although it looks
like quite a few more could be added before it’s all said and done. I also want to give
you an update on a company that was supposed to come out last week, but didn’t. And then,
I also have a date for you on one of the big IPOs of 2020 having a lockup expiration.
Welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise channel for our weekly featured show,
IPO This Week. As always, I want to thank the community for coming back to the channel
each and every week. And for anyone checking out the channel for the first time, my name
is Kevin and I want to welcome you to our weekly show where I try to pull the most important
information that you want to know for companies going public, as well as the upcoming lock
up expiration dates. Keep in mind this show is meant to be more
of an introduction to the companies just so you know they’re out there and some of the
main things to be aware of…and then based on the companies with the most popularity
and interest from you in the comments, we do more separate and dedicated videos that
provide a more in-depth analysis into those companies. So if this sounds good to you,
I hope you consider subscribing to the channel. And now with 9 companies to talk about this
week, let’s get into it… First up, is the smallest deal on the table,
and it’s from an early stage biotech based in Denmark named Evaxion Biotech, ticker EVAX.
The company plans to raise $30 million at a $233 million market cap. This biotech uses
a proprietary artificial intelligence technology to simulate the human immune system and generate
predictive models to identify and develop novel immunotherapies for the treatment of
various cancers, bacterial diseases and viral infections.
As the company looks to validate the predictive power and scalability of their AI platforms,
they have identified and are developing a pipeline of clinical product candidates initially
focused in the areas of immuno-oncology and infectious disease. They have two lead product
candidates targeting the conditions of metastatic melanoma and bladder cancer and are expecting
Phase 1/2a readouts for both product candidates in the first half of 2021.
As an early stage biotech, there is no revenue to report. And therefore, the IPO is set to
fund continuing development of their pipeline. The Evaxion Biotech IPO is set for Wednesday
with pricing expected to come within the 10-12 dollar range. EVAX stock would then begin
trading on Thursday. Next up, we stay outside of the US for a Chinese
fertilizer producer named Muliang Viagoo Technology, ticker MULG, who plans to raise $40 million
at a $194 million market cap. This company touts that through their patented technology,
they can process crop straw in three hours into high quality organic nutritious fertilizers
that are easily absorbed by crops.The company states in their filing that straws are common
agricultural by-product that farmers usually burn to get rid of which results in significant
air pollution and damage in the surface structure of the soil with loss of nutrients. The company
believes their technology helps reduce air pollution because they turn waste straw into
organic fertilizer, instead of it being burned. The straw organic fertilizer produced does
not contain the heavy metals, antibiotics and harmful bacteria that are common in traditional
manure fertilizer according to the company.
While the company does sell some food products such as apples, they generate over 90% of
their revenue mainly from their organic fertilizers business. While the company is profitable,
it did see a decline in revenue from 2018 to 2019 and is on pace to report a further
reduction in 2020. The company reported that revenue was mainly impacted negatively by
the pandemic.
MULG stock is expected to be priced at $4. It’s looking like the IPO will happen on
Tuesday, with trading set for Wednesday. But as we often see, these dates can quickly change
with IPOs. Next up is really an uplisting to Nasdaq versus
a truly new public company. That company is named urban-gro, ticker UGRO, who could be
traded in the over-the-current market. In moving to the Nasdaq, the company plans to
raise $45 million at a $97 million market cap. For some background, the company engineers
and designs indoor controlled environment agriculture facilities, with the purpose of
creating high-performance indoor cultivation facilities for their clients to grow specialty
crops, including leafy greens, vegetables, herbs, and plant-based medicines. Preparing
for their uplisting, the company announced and completed a reverse stock split of 1-for-6
shares. Financially, they’re unprofitable, but are expecting to show year over year growth
in revenue. Preliminary and unaudited revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 is expected
to be between $25.6 million and $25.9 million, compared to $24.2 million reported for the
year ended December 31, 2019. Urban-gro also reports they are entering 2021 with in excess
of $14 million of contractually committed orders for environmental and cultivation equipment
systems for which revenue has not been recognized. Urban-gro stock is expected to price at $10.50.
I also don’t have a confirmed trading date for urban-gro as of this recording.
Next we have another early stage biotech, Landos Biopharma, whose stock will be listed
under the ticker LABP. Landos Biopharma plans to raise $100 million at a $650 million market
cap as it continues to develop its pipeline. Landos is focused on the discovery and development
of oral therapeutics for patients with autoimmune diseases by aiming to inhibit the inflammatory
responses by changing the metabolic processes in target cells.
Through a proprietary AI-based precision medicine platform named LANCE, they have identified
seven novel targets and product candidates across 14 familiar medical indications that
include ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, lupus; rheumatoid arthritis, nonalcoholic
steatohepatitis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis,
eosinophilic esophagitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetic nephropathy and
Type 1 diabetes. So quite a list of some very common medical conditions they’re targeting.
The company’s lead candidate is currently in a Phase 2 trial for mild to moderate ulcerative
colitis. Again, as an early stage biotech with no products on the market, there are
no revenues to speak of at this time. The Landos Biopharma IPO looks be priced between
15 to 17 dollars on Wednesday. LABP stock should then begin trading on Thursday.
Okay, as we’re just about halfway through the list, I wanted to pause for 2 things;
1 is that I want to ask you to please press that like button to help the channel out,
you doing that is so important as it helps this video to get to more people…and the
more people that see it and join the community will allow me to continue to justify in spending
more time on the channel. The second thing is that I wanted to update you on the Southeastern
Grocers IPO which was expected to come out last week, but didn’t. As of this time,
they’ve postponed their IPO without an official reason given, although reports are that they
weren’t getting much interest on the pricing that they wanted. As I said on last week’s
episode, I listed it as the one company on last week’s slate of IPOs that would not
be one I would even consider, so I can’t say that I’m surprised they’ve put it
off for now. If and when they resume their attempt to go public, I’ll keep you guys
posted. Next up, we have the loanDepot IPO whose stock
will trade under the ticker LDI. loanDepot is a technology-empowered residential mortgage
platform that launched in 2010. Using a digital-first approach has allowed loanDepot to become one
of the fastest-growing, at-scale mortgage originators in the U.S. According to Inside
Mortgage Finance, they are the second largest retail-focused non-bank mortgage originator
and the fifth largest overall retail originator. The company originated $79.4 billion of loans
for the twelve months ended September 30, 2020 and experienced 116% year-over-year origination
volume growth for the nine months ended September 30th.
The company utilizes what they call mello , their proprietary end-to-end technology
platform and believes their differentiated data analytics capabilities and nationally
recognized consumer brand positions them to capitalize on the ongoing shift towards at-scale,
digitally-enabled platforms. From a customer perspective, the loanDepot reports a Net Promoter
Score (NPS) of 74 for the period between September 2017 and November 2020.
As we have discussed for many mortgage companies going public recently, low interest rates
as a result of the pandemic have fueled a lot of business. For the nine months ended
September 30, 2020, the company generated total net revenue of $3 billion, more than
tripled from the same time period in 2019. This has resulted in net income of $1.47 billion,
which was significantly higher than the 18 million dollar net from the same period in
2019. The question we have to ask is what the outlook is now that many people have already
taken advantage of these low interest rates and already refinanced.
The loanDepot plans to raise $300 million at a $6.5 billion market cap at its IPO on
Wednesday where pricing is expected to come within a range of 19 to 21 dollars. loanDepot
stock will then trade, again, under the symbol LDI on Thursday.
Moving on we have another biotech, this one named Sana Biotechnology who will trade under
the symbol SANA. This preclinical biotech operates on the belief that engineered cells
will be one of the most important transformations in medicine over the next several decades.
They are working on: being able to control or modify any gene in the body, to replace
any cell that is damaged or missing, and to markedly improve access to cellular and gene-based
medicines. As stated in their filing, they are developing
cell engineering platforms to revolutionize treatment across a broad array of therapeutic
areas with unmet treatment needs, including oncology, diabetes, central nervous system
disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and genetic disorders, among others. As of now, all of
their current product candidates are in preclinical development, with their goal being to file
multiple investigational new drug applications in 2022 and 2023. So being at the preclinical
stage, at best, they are years from bringing anything to market. And needless to say, there
is no revenue to speak of at this time. If you’re interested in the Sana Biotechnology
IPO, it is expected to be priced on Wednesday between 20 to 23 dollars which would result
in them raising approximately $323 million at a $4 billion market cap. Sana stock would
then begin trading on February 4th. Moving on up in deal size, next up is Virtual
communication platform ON24 who plans to raise $409 million at a $2.6 billion market cap.
This company has a mission to transform the way businesses drive revenue and customer
engagement through data-rich digital experiences. They provide a cloud-based digital experience
platform that enables businesses to convert customer engagement into revenue through interactive
webinars, virtual events, and multimedia content experiences. They had 159,000 interactive,
live digital experiences from January 1st through September 30, 2020, engaging an average
of 4 million prospective customers and business professionals monthly, an increase of 174%
year-over-year. The platform creates and captures actionable, real-time data at scale from millions
of professionals every month to provide businesses with buying signals and behavioral insights
to efficiently convert prospects into customers. As of Sept. 30, 2020, they report in their
filing of having had over 1,900 customers in more than 40 countries, including three
of the five largest global technology companies, four of the five largest U.S. banks, three
of the five largest global healthcare companies, and three of the five largest global industrial
and manufacturing companies, as measured by 2019 revenue.
As to financials, revenue was $82.6 million for fiscal year 2018 and $89.1 million for
2019. But more recently, revenue growth as has been really strong for the nine months
ended September 30, 2020, growing to $103.7 million. The company posted net losses of
$17.6 million in 2018 and $17.5 million for 2019, so essentially flat, but with increased
revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the was able to report net income
of $11.2 million. As to the ON24 IPO, it’s expected to price
on Tuesday within a range of 45 to 50 dollars. ON24 stock would then begin to trade on Wednesday
under the ticker ONTF. Next is the 2nd biggest deal on the calendar,
Atotech, who will trade under the ticker ATC and plans to raise $700 million at a $3.8
billion market cap. Atotech is based in Germany, where by the way, we have some really cool
members in the community…so shout out to our German friends. So Atotech is the leading
global provider of specialty electroplating solutions. They rank #1 in the global electroplating
chemistry market, #1 in the global general metal finishing plating chemistry market,
and the #1 global manufacturer of horizontal plating equipment for printed circuit board
production. Their solutions are used in smartphones, communication infrastructure, cloud computing
infrastructure, computing and consumer electronics, automotive electronics, and automotive surface
finishing, as well as in numerous industrial and consumer applications such as heavy machinery
and household appliances. As to financials, for fiscal 2019, they generated
revenues of just under 1.2 billion dollars and consolidated net income of $7.6 million.
More recently, during the nine months ended September 30, 2020, they reported revenues
of 869 million dollars and a consolidated net loss of almost 312 million dollars. Also
as of September 30th, they had cash of $300 million and outstanding debt of over $2.1
billion, which they acknowledged in their filing may limit the availability of financial
resources to pursue their growth initiatives. So not surprising, they’re holding this
IPO to help pay down their debt. The Atotech IPO is expected to be held on
Wednesday with pricing anticipated within a range of 19 to 22 dollars. ATC stock would
then begin trading on Thursday. And last, but not least, the biggest money
deal on the table, looking to raise $800 million at a $6.4 billion market cap is TELUS International.
The Canadian digital service provider is planning a dual listing on the New York and Toronto
stock exchanges where it will be listed under the ticker TIXT. Telus International describes
themselves as a leading digital customer experience innovator that designs, builds and delivers
next-generation solutions for global and disruptive brands. They say that their services support
the full lifecycle of their clients' digital transformation journeys and enable them to
more quickly embrace next-generation digital technologies to deliver better business outcomes.
Their clients include over 600 companies across high-growth industries, such as Tech and Games,
Communications and Media, eCommerce and FinTech, Healthcare, and Travel and Hospitality. Their
relationship with TELUS Corporation, a leading communications and information technology
company in Canada, is Telus International’s largest client and controlling shareholder.
TELUS Corporation provides significant revenue visibility, stability and growth and they
have renewed their master services agreement with them. The renewed agreement provides
for a new ten-year term beginning in January 2021, and accounts for a minimum annual spend
of $200 million. Speaking of money, for the financials, revenue
has grown significantly over the past 3 years at a compound annual growth rate of 34%, with
revenues at the end of 2019 being just over 1 billion dollars. More recently, for the
nine months ended September 30, 2020, they’ve already exceeded their 2019 number by reporting
revenue of over 1.1 billion dollars in 3 less months. Another plus is that the company has
been profitable over the last 3 years, with net income having increased to 69 million
in 2019, increasing to almost 82 million dollars in just the first nine months of 2020.
If you’re interested in a company with solid growth and profitability, this might be one
to look at. Telus International plans to price their IPO on Tuesday with pricing expected
within a range of 23 to 25 dollars. Trading would then begin on Thursday.
Alright so that’s the list, another busy week of IPOs, and like I said earlier, there
could even be a few more on the way. Are you interested in buying any of these companies?
Let us know in the comments. Moving on, let’s get to the companies that
have Lock-up periods expiring. On Monday, we have Rackspace Technology (RXT). And then
on Tuesday, we have Acutus Medical (AFIB), Oak Street Health (OSH), and Rocket Companies
(RKT). We talked a lot about Rocket Companies when they held their IPO last summer, I just
can’t believe how fast the time has gone. Rocket Companies stock is trading at the end
of last week virtually where it was after the first day of trading so it'll be interesting
to see what happens on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, we have three more companies with
lock ups expiring: Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (CMPI), Freeline Therapeutics (FRLN), and
IBEX (IBEX). Another long episode…thanks for hanging
in there with me. I hope you enjoyed the video, and if you did, again please hit that like
button, share with your friends….and if you haven’t subscribed to the channel yet,
here’s your formal invitation, we’d love to have you become a part of our community,
after all, it’s totally free. And with that, I’ll wish you another good week of trading…
thank you for watching, and, until next time, have a great day!