US IPO Weekly Winners & Losers

Capping off a brutal April, the IPO market dipped to a new 52-week low. The IPO Index finished the week down -3.0%, compared to the S&P 500’s -3.3% loss.

Bausch + Lomb (NYSE: BLCO) launched its $788 million IPO on Thursday, a sight for sore eyes after weeks of mostly micro-caps. A carve-out of Bausch Health (formerly Valeant), the eyecare giant is about what you’d expect to list in a challenging market: a mature, stable business with strong cash flow.

Renaissance’s IPO market strategist was quoted in Reuters, calling Bausch + Lomb “an important launch in terms of reopening the US IPO market, one that will test investor appetite for future deals.”

Four IPOs listed in the US this week. The only major deal, vaccine developer HilleVax (Nasdaq: HLVX) raised $200 million in its upsized offering. It finished up +12.3% despite a struggling biotech sector. Two more micro-caps popped upwards of 350%, before dropping later in the week – by now a familiar pattern.

Three blank check IPOs also came to market. That’s six total for April, making it the slowest month for new SPAC listings in two years, as poor post-merger returns continue to weigh on the entire SPAC lifecycle.

The IPO Index’s top five winners were all Chinese issuers this week, which rebounded after the country’s government pledged to support economic growth. The largest losses again came from high-growth tech and healthcare.