- Initial public offerings have rebounded in early 2019 after a slow end to last year.
- Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI), Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT), and Tradeweb have already gone public while Uber (NYSE:UBER) and Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) are exploring IPOs.
- Trading among the companies was mixed with Levi and Tradeweb up sharply with Lyft struggling to rise above IPO price.
Tradeweb last week was the third mega initial public offering in the US this year, raising nearly $1.1 billion. Of the three, Tradeweb and Lyft each raised more than $1 billion through the sale of stock while Levi raised over $600 million.
This year looks to be a banner one for the listing of so-called unicorns, or private tech companies with valuations over $1 billion. Pinterest began its IPO road show on Monday with a planned valuation of up to $11.3 billion —notably below the last private valuation ($12.3 billion) of the company. This could be due to wariness of "unicorn" valuations following the choppy trading of Lyft, which is currently below its IPO price.
In what is expected to be the largest IPO of 2019, Uber is expected to hit the public markets later this month with a valuation of over $100 billion.
Check out the details of three big US IPOs this year:
Levi Strauss
Ticker: LEVI
Description: Iconic maker of denim jeans.
IPO Price: $17
Opening trade: $22.22
Opening premium to IPO price: 31% premium
Performance since IPO price: 25% increase
Valuation at IPO: $6.6 billion
Amount raised in IPO: $623 million
Lyft
Ticker: LYFT
Description: Ride-sharing company.
IPO Price: $72
Opening trade: $87.24
Opening premium to IPO price: 21% premium
Performance since IPO price: 1% decrease
Amount raised in IPO: $2.7 billion
Valuation at IPO: $23.4 billion
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Tradeweb
Ticker: TW
Description: Electronic trading platform for bonds.
IPO Price: $27
Opening trade: $36.24
Opening premium to IPO price: 27% increase
Performance since IPO price: 42%
Valuation at IPO: $6.0 billion
Amount raised in IPO: $1.1 billion