The IPO Buzz: The Power of The Pipeline

Labor Day Monday marked the pause before the IPO market’s run for the home stretch of the year. There’s plenty of power in the IPO Pipeline  – with 10 IPOs in the $100 million-and-up class aiming to raise combined proceeds of at least $1.1 billion. That’s in contrast to this time last year when IPO bankers were preparing for a September gold rush of about $7.3 billion of IPOs. Chip designer Arm’s (ARM) $5 billion-plus IPO and online grocery delivery app Instacart’s (CART) long-awaited  IPO created a lot of buzz in September 2023. The wild card this year will be the timing. IPO bankers will weigh whether it’s best to go ahead and get deals done as soon as possible to take advantage of the overall U.S. stock market’s remarkable recovery from the early August rout. In a presidential election year, bankers will roll the dice on whether it’s best to price IPOs sooner rather than later. A Look Back at August The IPO Scorecard for 2024 shows that the IPO market is lagging the overall U.S. stock market’s performance. Through the end of August, the 107 IPOs priced so far this year had a total return of 8.53 percent from their IPO prices – compared with the NASDAQ’s gain of 18 percent for the year to date. Note: IPOScoop’s IPO Scorecard for 2024 does not include 29 unit IPOs priced for the year to date through Aug. 30, 2024. For the month of August, the major U.S. stock indexes scored impressive gains after a steep drop earlier in the month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained nearly 1.8 percent and ended August 2024 at an all-time high. The NASDAQ Composite Index rose more than 0.6 percent, while the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent. Jobs Data After Labor Day The U.S. stock market was closed on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, for the Labor Day holiday. Speaking of labor: Wall Street will focus on the crucial U.S. jobs report for August, which will be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. Traders are waiting for more data this week to shed light on the U.S. economy’s strength. Data compiled by Bloomberg showed that swap traders are pricing in about a 1-in-5 chance of a 50-basis-point opening cut in the fed funds rate when the FOMC meets later this month. Ten Big IPOs in  the Pipeline Let’s take a look at the 10 large IPOs in the IPO Pipeline. These IPOs have been arranged with an eye to each company’s financial performance. The most profitable companies are listed first. (Click on the hyperlink in each company’s name to go to its IPO Profile on IPOScoop.com ) Grupo Aeromexico (AERO Proposed)  NYSE Estimated IPO Proceeds: $100 million – placeholder figure; some see this IPO raising up to $300 million. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore ISI and Apollo Global Securities are the joint book-runners. Profitable Mexico City-based airline with flights to every major city in Mexico and 43 international cities in 22 countries across multiple continents Financial Snapshot: Net income of $619.5 million on revenue of $5.4 billion for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024 HMH Holding (HMHW Proposed)  NASDAQ Estimated IPO Proceeds: $100 million J.P. Morgan, Piper Sandler,  Evercore ISI, Citigroup, Stifel and DNB Markets are the joint book-runners. Profitable Houston-based parent of a drilling equipment and services company whose clients are oil and gas E&P (exploration and production) companies. Financial Snapshot: Net income of $41.1 million on revenue of $812.54 million for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024 Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS Proposed) NYSE Est. IPO Proceeds: $100 million J.P. Morgan, Barclays, DNB Markets, Piper Sandler, Guggenheim Securities and Raymond James are the joint book-runners. Profitable Covington, Louisiana-based offshore drilling services company provides marine transportation to and from offshore oil and gas drilling rigs. Financial Snapshot: Net income of $81.93 million on revenue of $601.84 million for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024 Turo Inc. (TURO Proposed) NYSE  Estimated IPO Proceeds: $100 million Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Allen & Co., Citigroup, TD Cowen, D.A. Davidson & Co., Wolfe Nomura Alliance and LionTree are the joint book-runners. Car-sharing service based in San Francisco Financial Snapshot: Net income of $1.7 million on revenue of $923.8 million for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024 BKV Inc. (BKV Proposed) NYSE Estimated IPO Proceeds: $100 million Citigroup, Barclays, Evercore ISI and Jefferies are the joint book-runners. Denver-based company acquires, develops and operates natural gas and NGL-producing properties. Financial Snapshot: Net loss of $17.9 million on revenue of $813.13 million for the 12 months that ended March 31, 2024 Brazil Potash (GRO Proposed) NYSE  Estimated IPO Proceeds: $100 million Pre-revenue mining company, based in Ontario, Canada, is developing a project in Brazil to mine potash, a major fertilizer. Financial Snapshot: Net loss of $13.2 million on no revenue for the 12 months that ended Dec. 31, 2023 Solera (SLRA Proposed) NYSE Est. IPO Proceeds: $100 million; some see up to $200 million in estimated proceeds.   Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Jefferies, Citigroup and RBC Capital Markets are the joint book-runners. Solera, based in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Westlake, Texas, describes itself as a leading global provider of SaaS solutions to the vehicle lifecycle ecosystem through four platforms: Vehicle Claims; Vehicle Repair; Vehicles Solutions and Fleet Solutions. Financial Snapshot: Net loss of $471.57 million on revenue of $2.44 billion for the 12 months that ended March 31, 2024 Bicara Therapeutics ( BCAX Proposed) NASDAQ Est. IPO Proceeds: $100 million Morgan Stanley, TD Cowen, Cantor and Stifel are the joint book-runners. Boston-based clinical biotech is focused on evaluating its leading drug candidate, ficerafusp alfa, a bifunctional antibody, in a Phase 1/1B clinical trial to treat head and neck squamous cell cancer. Bicara Therapeutics plans to start a Phase 2/3 trial late in the fourth quarter of 2024 or early in the first quarter of 2025 to evaluate ficerafusp alfa in combination with pembrolizumab as a first-line therapy in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer, excluding patients associated with HPV infection or HPV-positive patients, with oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer, the prospectus said. Financial Snapshot: Net loss of $64.9 million on no revenue for the 12 months that ended MBX Biosciences (MBX Proposed)  NASDAQ Est. IPO Proceeds: $100 million JPMorgan,  Jefferies, Stifel and Guggenheim Securities are the joint book-runners. MBX Biosciences, based in Carmel, Indiana, is a clinical biopharma company developing three leading drug candidates: * MBX 2109: Our lead product candidate, MBX 2109, is a parathyroid hormone peptide prodrug designed as a potential long-acting hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to treat chronic hypoparathyroidism (HP). We are evaluating MBX 2109 in a Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with HP. We dosed our first patient in this trial in August 2024. We anticipate reporting topline data in the third quarter of 2025. * MBX 1416: We are advancing MBX 1416, designed to be a long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1 receptor antagonist, as a potential therapy for post-bariatric hypoglycemia (PBH), a chronic complication of bariatric surgery. MBX 1416 is designed as a convenient once-weekly therapy to reduce insulin secretion and increase blood glucose to reduce the frequency and severity of hypoglycemic events, We anticipate additional single ascending dose and multiple ascending dose data from our Phase 1 clinical trial in the fourth quarter of 2024. *  MBX 4291: Our lead obesity product candidate, MBX 4291, is designed to be a long-acting and highly potent GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP, receptor co-agonist prodrug with the goal of reducing dosing frequency and improving efficacy and tolerability relative to existing standards of care. Financial Snapshot: Net loss of $47.2 million on no revenue for the 12 months that ended June 30, 2024 Zenas BioPharma (ZBIO Proposed) NASDAQ Estimated IPO Proceeds:  $100 million Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, Citigroup and Guggenheim Securities are the joint book-runners. Zenas BioPharma, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a clinical biotech developing its leading drug candidate, obexelimab, as a potential treatment for MS (multiple sclerosis) as well as SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) and other autoimmune diseases. Financial Snapshot: Net loss of $37.12 million on collaboration revenue of $50 million for the 12 months that ended Dec. 31, 2023 Stay tuned. (For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.) Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board. To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message. 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.