Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Non-U.S. companies complete week’s one deal, file two new registrations

By John Filar Atwood

Foreign companies accounted for most of the activity in a relatively quiet week for the IPO market. Hong Kong companies completed the week’s only offering and filed one of its three preliminary registrations. A second new registration was filed by a business headquartered in Australia. GigaCloud Technology was the week’s lone new issuer, and it raised $36 million in its public market debut. The company operates a B2B e-commerce marketplace for large parcel merchandise in Hong Kong. It was the fifth Hong Kong-based company to go public in the U.S. this year.

New registrants. The week’s activity included three new registrations. New filer Global Engine Group is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands but operates in Hong Kong. The information communication technologies holding company provides solutions to telecom operators, data centers, and cloud computing businesses. Univest Securities, which has completed two lead manager assignments this year, will lead the prospective offering. Australia, which is home to one new issuer so far in 2022, is the headquarter location of new registrant Innovation Beverage Group. The developer and retailer of a portfolio of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages recently converted to a public limited company. Innovation Beverage collaborates with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners to manufacture bitters for distribution in Australia. EF Hutton, which will serve as lead underwriter for Innovation Beverage, also was hired by new filer EMulate Therapeutics. The company develops radio frequency energy-based therapeutic applications for oncology, pain management, and mental health. EF Hutton is helping EMulate search for debt financing partners with a target of $5 million, and equity funding in the $15 million range.

Withdrawals. CEA Space Partners I was the only company to withdraw its pending registration last week. The blank check company initially registered in March 2021 and last amended its filing in November. To date, 93 of the year’s 121 Forms RW have been filed by blank check companies.

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.