IPOs This Week: Chinese Education Firm Bright Scholar Aims for $135 Million

May 14, 2017 by Paul Ausick

All six scheduled initial public offerings (IPOs) on last week’s calendar made it out the door and there are three new offers and one returning IPO on this week’s list.

Among last week’s IPOs, Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure Inc. (NYSE: SOI) sold 10.1 million shares at $12, below the expected range of $15 to $18 and 500,000 fewer shares than originally planned.

Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI) sold 2.5 million shares at $15, the midpoint of the expected range. The firm doubled the shares offered and raised a total of $38 million at a market cap of around $190 million.

Gardner Denver Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GDI) sold 41.3 million shares at $20, below the expected range of $23 to $26 per share.

A.S.V. LLC (NASDAQ: ASV) also priced below the expected range, at $7, compared to a range of $8 to $10. The industrial equipment maker raised $27 million by selling 3.8 million shares.

Through the week ending May 12, IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital reported that 56 IPOs have priced in the U.S. so far this year, up about 155% year over year. Total proceeds raised through last week equaled $16.4 billion. For 2016, Renaissance Capital reported a total of 105 IPOs, down 38% year over year from 170 in 2015. Total 2016 proceeds amounted to $18.8 billion compared with a 2015 total of $30 billion. Renaissance Capital does not include “best efforts” or blank-check companies in its totals, nor does it include IPOs that raise less than $10 million.

Here are some details on the four IPOs scheduled for the coming week.

Returning to the lists this week is Accelerated Pharma Inc., a biopharmaceutical firm developing a platinum-based chemotherapy using genomic technology. The company plans to offer 2.4 million units in an expected price range of $4 to $6. Each unit comprises 1 share of common stock and one Series A warrant. The offering has been upsized and warrants added, while the offering price has dropped. The company expects to raise $12 million at an implied market cap of $57 million. Underwriters are Rodman & Renshaw and Joseph Gunnar. Shares are listed only as the week of May 15 and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ACCP.

G1 Therapeutics Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cancer treatments. The company plans to offer 6.3 million shares in an expected price range of $15 to $17 to raise $100 million at an implied market cap of $427 million. Underwriters for the offering are J.P. Morgan, Cowen & Co., Needham & Co., and Wedbush Securities. Shares are expected to price Tuesday and begin trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GTHX.

argenx NV is a Netherlands-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing antibody-based therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer. The company’s ordinary shares already trade on Euronext and it plans to offer 3.6 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $18.18 per ADS to raise $39 million at a market cap of $431 million. Each ADS is equal to one ordinary share. Underwriters are Cowen & Co., Piper Jaffray, JMP Securities, and Wedbush PacGrow. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ARGX.

Bright Scholar Education Holdings Ltd. is a Guangdong-based operator of international and bilingual schools for K-12 students in China. The company plans to offer 15 million ADS in an expected price range of $8 to $10 to raise $135 million at an implied market cap of $1.04 billion. Each ADS is equal to one Class A ordinary share. Underwriters include Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, China Merchants Securities, and BNP Paribas. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BEDU.

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