By John Filar Atwood
After six months, the IPO market is only slightly behind last year with 102 completed deals compared to 110 at the 2019 mid-year point. This year’s numbers were helped by an exceptionally busy month of June, which saw 38 companies make their public market debuts. It was the highest single-month IPO total since 40 companies went public in November 2007. Last week’s seven new issues were headlined by Dun & Bradstreet Holdings’ $1.7 billion offering, the third largest of 2020. The deal was one of four led by Goldman Sachs last week. The other Goldman-led offerings were completed by Accolade, Lemonade, and GS Acquisition Holdings. After six months, Goldman and Jefferies sit atop the IPO lead manager rankings with 23 offerings apiece. In addition to GS Acquisition, the blank checks industry (SIC 6770) added new issuers Panacea Acquisition and Capstar Special Purpose Acquisition. SIC 6770's market-leading IPO total was up to 38 at the end of June. The week’s other new issuer was pharmaceutical preparations company Aditx Therapeutics which raised $11 million for the development of drugs to aid organ transplant success.
New registrants. The week’s activity included 15 new registrations. JPMorgan was selected as lead underwriter by new registrants Annexon and Nurix Therapeutics. Annexon develops therapies for complement-mediated disorders of the body, brain and eye, while Nurix makes small molecule drugs to treat cancer and immune disorders. Inozyme Pharma, a maker of treatments for diseases of abnormal mineralization, filed its plans for an $86 million IPO. The week’s other pharmaceutical preparations new registrants were PainReform and PaxMedica. Israel’s PainReform reformulates established therapeutics to create extended release drug products. PaxMedica develops anti-purinergic therapies for the treatment of neuro developmental disorders. New registrants GO Acquisition, Property Solutions Acquisition, Ascendant Digital Acquisition, and Deerfield Healthcare Technology Acquisition operate out of New York City. GO will target travel-related businesses in North America or Europe, and Property Solutions intends to focus on real estate businesses. Deerfield hopes to acquire a healthcare company, while Ascendant’s target will be in consumer entertainment or a related business. East Resources Acquisition also added to the growing list of 2020’s blank checks preliminary registrants. The Florida company intends to search for a target in the energy industry in North America. Software companies Jamf Holding and Vertex selected Goldman Sachs to lead their planned offerings. Jamf offers a platform to help enterprises use Apple products and infrastructure. Vertex provides software to help companies automate their indirect tax processes. The high-tech industry also saw a new registration from Kubient, a provider of a software platform for real-time trading of digital, programmatic advertising. The other preliminary filers last week were Montrose Environmental Group and China-based CN Energy Group. Montrose provides environmental assessment, measurement, and remediation services. CN Energy supplies activated carbon for multiple manufacturing uses. With 44 new registrations in June, the 2020 mid-year total rose to 137, only two fewer than the January through June 2019 total.
Withdrawals. June was the second straight month in which only one company filed a Form RW. Through the end of June, 2020 has seen 11 withdrawals compared to 26 in the first half of last year.
The information reported here is gathered using IPO Vital Signs, a Wolters Kluwer Regulatory U.S. database that includes all SEC registered IPOs, including REITs and those non-U.S. IPO filers seeking to list in the U.S. markets. IPO Vital Signs does not track closed-end funds, best efforts or non-underwritten deals, or IPO offerings for amounts less than $5 million.