US IPO Weekly Winners & Losers

How late into January can you still wish someone a happy new year?

With the IPO market up +9.7% this week, I think we can keep saying it. Inflation has pulled back somewhat, and IPOs strongly outperformed the S&P 500 (+2.7%). Crypto exchange Coinbase led the way with a +50.3% gain, thanks to higher Bitcoin prices and cost-cutting measures. Narcolepsy biotech Harmony Biosciences was the week’s IPO loser, off -11.6% after the departure of its CEO.

It’s a great start to 2023, and I expect a few IPO candidates called up their bankers to discuss timing. However, we’ll hold off on celebrations, given the Fed’s recent history of cutting rallies short.

Niche insurer Skyward Specialty (Nasdaq: SKWD) raised $134 million in the biggest IPO since October and traded up +27.3%, which puts it in-line with our comp group on 2023 P/E. Its first-day pop is among the best for insurance IPOs over the past five years. Lionel Messi’s micro-cap clothing brand MGO Global (Nasdaq: MGOL) also listed on Friday.

One notable S-1 hit this past week: Sequoia-backed biotech Structure Therapeutics filed to raise $100 million. News also broke that one of the largest IPOs on file, Vietnam’s VinFast Auto, now targets a Nasdaq listing in Q2.

One SPAC IPO priced, Israel Acquisitions (Nasdaq: ISRLU), the biggest in three months. No major mergers, but USCT raised eyebrows when it announced a plan to acquire publicly-traded Wejo, which already listed via a different SPAC merger in 2021. The transaction conjures up Russian dolls.

US exchanges are closed on Monday for MLK Jr. Day, so the IPO calendar only has a handful of micro-caps for now. We should see more decent-sized deals in the coming weeks.