Industry News

MAS Financial IPO fully subscribed on first day

New Delhi: The initial public offering (IPO) of MAS Financial Services Ltd was subscribed 1.05 times on Friday, the first day of the shares sale.
As of 6.15pm, the IPO received bids for 7,531,808 shares against the total issue size of 7,124,910, according to data available with BSE. The IPO will close on 10 October.
The Gujarat-based firm plans to raise Rs2,275 crore through the share sale with a price band of Rs456-459 per share. The IPO includes a fresh issue of Rs233 crore. The proceeds from the fresh issue will be used to augment its capital base to meet future capital requirements.
Analysts said the valuations of the non-banking finance company (NBFC) which lends to middle and lower income segments are reasonable. “At the upper band of the issue, the company trades is offered at 3.6 times post issue book value of Rs130 which is fairly priced in our view compared to peers,” said Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt.

MAS Financial IPO subscribed 49% so far on Day 1

MAS Financial Services has fixed a price band of Rs. 456-459 per share for its initial share sale offering, through which it is estimated to raise Rs. 460 crore.
The initial public offer (IPO) will be open for public subscription during October 6-10, MAS Financial Services had said in a statement.
MAS Financial is a Gujarat-headquartered non-banking financial company (NBFC) with more than two decades of business operations and presence across six states and the NCT of Delhi.
The public issue comprises fresh issue of shares worth up to Rs. 233 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs. 227 crore by existing shareholders. 135 crore.

Three Winston-Salem companies receive funding from Creative Startups accelerator

The accelerator program, which took place in Winston-Salem for the second time, was held by the Center for Creative Economy.
Creative Startups in Winston-Salem focuses on mentoring startups in creative industries with the goal of helping the companies move towards a customer base and profitability. Companies from Cambridge, Mass and Los Angeles were also among those competing.
“Accelerator participants receive eight weeks of intensive business skills training to help jumpstart their businesses,” said Margaret Collins, executive director for the Center for Creative Economy.
Jenni Earle Design, which makes southern-inspired, hand-dyed bandanas, received $15,000.
The Dream School, an afterschool and summer program that uses podcasts, digital video and coding to improve students’ learning skills, received $10,000.

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering

The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.
A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 Attention: Prospectus Department, or by calling 866-803-9204, or from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., Attention: Equity Capital Markets, 787 Seventh Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10019; or by calling Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. toll-free at (800) 966-1559.

OrthoPediatrics sets price range on IPO, could bring in up to $64m

OrthoPediatrics yesterday priced the range on its initial public offering, looking to float 4 million shares of common stock at between $12 and $14 per share, which would bring in between $48 and $56 million.
The offering also includes a 30-day underwriter’s option to purchase an additional 600,000 shares of common stock, bringing the possible total the company could raise in the offering up to $64.4 million.
Warsaw, Ind.-based OrthoPediatrics currently produces 21 surgical systems designed to support orthopedic trauma and issues and said it has plans to expand its offerings into additional categories, including the foot and ankle, hand and wrist, clavicle, pelvis and sports-related injuries.
Funds from the offering are slated to pay accumulated unpaid dividends on its Series B preferred stock, to invest in implants and instrument sets for consignment to its customers and for R&D, sales expansion and general corporate purposes, the company said in a press release.
OrthoPediatrics said it has applied to the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker symbol “KIDS.” Piper Jaffray & Co. and Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. are acting as joint book-runners for the offering.

Saudi Aramco IPO carries significant execution risk, top regulator says

Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, chairman of the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority, told CNBC Friday: “The main risks are around execution. Whenever you have something which has this high an aspiration level, and this tight a timeline, the challenge is to get it done and get it done with the right level of quality.”
His comments come in the wake of a Bloomberg report suggesting the Aramco IPO could be pushed back to 2019 due to the large amount of preparatory work that still needs to be completed ahead of the listing. Aramco hit back at the claim, stating the IPO “remains on track”.
The Saudi government is yet to announce whether Aramco’s primary listing will be in London or New York, but it has decided that a portion of the firm will be floated on the country’s domestic stock index the Tadawul. “We’ve found very few gaps in our local regulations and we’re actually ready with minimal changes to accommodate the Aramco IPO or any other big listing,” he told CNBC.
The new thinking is to deregulate the market and open it up for foreign investors.”
Most notably, it has made it possible for investors to short-sell equities listed on the country’s stock exchange and helped introduce a corporate governance code which prohibits public companies from combining the roles of chairman and CEO.
Saudi Arabia is hoping the attention generated by the Aramco IPO will lead to a pick-up in the number of non-domestic companies listing on its markets.

Rovio Announces Results Of Its Initial Public Offering

Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the software giant behind the popular Angry Birds games on Android, has now reported its market valuation and initial funds raised following the company’s initial public offering (IPO). This follows news from earlier in the month which suggested the company would follow through on plans to take the company public. As to the company’s plans for the gains from the IPO, the company says that those will be used to grow the company, including through initiatives to boost brand recognition and to consolidate its position in the gaming industry. Having the company listed publicly should also aid in that effort, since the move should provide both the brand and the company’s projects with more visibility.
Regarding the specifics of Rovio’s IPO, the company’s shares were set at a price of €11.50 (or around $13.60) per share – which is at the upper end of the initial range. That resulted in the company raising around €30 million ($35.6 million) as a result of the IPO, while around €458 million ($541.5 million) went to majority owners, which are reported to include Trema International, Accel Partners, and Atomico. Meanwhile, the new market valuation for Rovio Entertainment Ltd had been set at €896 million, which is around $1.06 billion in U.S. dollars, ahead of its IPO on September 29.

Roku IPO valuation nearly doubles in two sessions

Don’t miss: After booming IPO, Roku thinks this is the future of the company.
It was the biggest debut for a large IPO so far in 2017, according to Dealogic data.
With 94.75 million total shares outstanding, the stock’s $12.54 rise off the IPO price adds about $1.19 billion in market cap to the company, to nearly double the pre-IPO valuation of $1.33 billion.
Roku had revenue of $398.7 million in 2016, compared with $1.19 billion for GoPro and $2.17 billion for Fitbit.
See also: Roku IPO: 5 things to know about the streaming device company.
On Friday, GoPro’s stock was trading at less than half its IPO price and Fitbit shares were trading at about one-third the IPO price.
“The last time a tech company had a higher first day of trading was the Sep 2016 IPO of Nutanix which rose 131% on its first day of trading,” said Renaissance Capital’s IPO ETF manager Kathleen Smith, in emailed comments, pointing out that while Nutanix Inc. NTNX, -0.18% is now 40% above its initial IPO price, it’s a far cry from its initial rally.

Roku IPO: Company sets 2017 record as shares soar

And then came Roku.
After popping 44 percent in its much-anticipated public offering in March, Snap shares on Thursday were down 15 percent from their IPO price.
The company’s share price flatlined during its first day on the public market, and on Thursday was trading at barely more than half its IPO price.
Roku raised $219 million in its IPO late Wednesday, pricing 15.7 million shares at $14 — the high end of the $12-$14 target range the company set last week.
Like many Silicon Valley tech companies entering the public market, Roku is not profitable. Roku pulled in $398.6 million in revenue last year, up 25 percent from the year before.
Roku’s IPO comes on the heels of a dismal year for Silicon Valley IPOs. At the time, analysts expected the market to bounce back in 2017, and pointed to the growing number of massive private companies that eventually will need to go public to return money to their investors.
Prior to Roku’s offering, 18 tech companies turned public this year, down from 21 at this time last year, according to Renaissance Capital.
The average return on IPOs priced this year is about 24 percent, Smith said.

OV2 Investment 1 Inc. Announces Completion of Initial Public Offering

Following the completion of the Offering, the Company has 10,000,000 Common Shares issued and outstanding, 3,000,000 of which are subject to escrow restrictions as disclosed in the Prospectus. Trading of the Common Shares on the TSXV commenced at the opening of business on 28th day of September 2017, under the symbol “OVO.P”.
The board of directors of the Company consists of Sheldon Pollack, Adam Adamou, Eric Apps and Babak Pedram. The officers of the Corporation are Sheldon Pollack and Adam Adamou. Except as specifically contemplated in the CPC policies of the TSXV, until the completion of its “Qualifying Transaction” (as defined therein), the Company will not carry on business, other than the identification and evaluation of companies, business or assets with a view to completing a proposed “Qualifying Transaction”.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them as actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to fulfill conditions of listing on the TSXV and inability to obtain required regulatory approvals.

What to expect as CarGurus moves toward an IPO

In fact, it doesn’t even attract much attention compared to other tech companies in Massachusetts.
Now it’s the best bet to end Massachusetts’ year-long drought of tech IPOs.
Revenue for the first six months of 2017 was $143.3 million, a 70 percent increase from the same period last year. It’s also making money: net income for the first half of 2017 was $8.6 million. “That being the case, the $100 million seems small,” said Kathleen Smith, a principal at Renaissance Capital, a manager of IPO ETFs.
Cars.com has more than double the revenue of CarGurus, but is stagnant year over year. TrueCar brought in about $277 million in 2016, compared to CarGurus’ $198 million, but grew just 7 percent year over year.

Singapore gaming and e-commerce startup Sea files for $1B initial public offering

. Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) L.L.C.
Founded in 2009, Sea initially started as an online gaming company before later diversifying into e-commerce and digital payment services. The company operates a range of sites, including its gaming platform Garena, online shopping portal Shopee and digital payments service AirPay across Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore.
The company is growing rapidly but that growth has also produced continuing losses.
They include a joint venture in Thailand with Central Group and investments in Indonesia.
The valuation on the raise was not disclosed, but the company was valued at $2.5 billion as of its latest venture capital round and its valuation for its IPO is expected to come in at about $3.5 billion.
Prior to the filing, Sea had raised $722 million. The long list of investors includes Cathay Financial Holding, Farallon Capital Management, GDP Venture, General Atlantic, Government of Singapore, Hillhouse Capital Group, JG Summit Holdings, Keystone Ventures, Khazanah Nasional, Mistletoe, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, SeaTown International and Uni-President Enterprises Corp.

Millennials Are Great at Saving Money but Reluctant to Invest It

The group before them is known as Generation X. The group includes more women, and is more racially and ethnically diverse than any group before, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (which counts millennials as 1982-2000).
But one place millennials shine financially is savings. There are several best practices to get this generation on track.
The next option, especially for those self-employed, are IRAs. A Roth IRA is taxed at the time of investment, but qualified distributions of the money are tax-free later.
Many people utilize a mix, or all, of these options.
One way to support community is through business development companies (BDCs), which pool money to create investment capital.

Live from Disrupt SF: Equity talks Slack, Lyft and flying cars

. Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s weekly venture capital-themed podcast where we work to unpack the numbers lurking behind the news.
Thanks for everyone who came over to listen and watch. We’ll rustle up some chairs next time. Also, the lack of heckling was a serious disappointment.
On a more serious note, there was news galore for the crew to dive into, so Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and myself — Alex! — were joined by Mike Maples from Floodgate.
Shoutout to everyone who turned out. Stay cool, and we’ll chat with you all in a week’s run.

Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

Flexport handles the boring logistics of a trillion-dollar business: the transport of shipping containers around the world. Because the work of freight forwarding seemed so bland, it was long ignored by the tech world.
When you apply that optimization to how every container full of electronics, clothes or food gets from factory to store, Flexport keeps getting smarter as the value piles up. That’s why just a year after raising $65 million at a valuation of $365 million, TechCrunch has learned Flexport has just closed a huge new round of funding, according to five sources.
Multiple sources now confirm that the startup has completed a $110 million Series C at an $800 million pre-money valuation.
Soon after TechCrunch wrote a story about the company being “The unsexiest trillion-dollar startup,” we started receiving aggressive pitches from these competitors.
“There are 25 freight forwarders that each do more than $1 billion in revenue a year,” he said.
That way it’s always moving full containers with maximum efficiency.
TechCrunch has heard that many of Flexport’s existing investors, which number at least 57, were shut out of the new round despite being interested. And while investors were happily offering it a valuation of $1 billion or more, Petersen didn’t want to get in over his head and risk a down-round later if the market stumbled.

SBI Life: India’s first billion-dollar insurance IPO opens today

On Sept. 20, SBI Life’s IPO of Rs8,400 crore ($1.3 billion) opened, making it the first financial sector firm to join the billion-dollar club.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company was the first to do so last year and was valued at Rs48,000 crore.
Even though SBI Life’s valuation is higher, analysts say it is justified.
Its new business premium improved by 35% between FY15 and FY17, higher than those of competitors.
Overall, the growth potential of the insurance industry remains robust.
India’s insurance density or premium paid per capita is still low at $59.70, compared to Asia’s average of $343.10 and the global $638.30, a report by international reinsurer Swiss Re said.
“Moreover, as returns in real-estate and gold become less attractive, we’ve seen retail savings flow back into mutual funds and insurance.
But there are other hidden jewels, too.
For instance, if Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest insurance company, decides to list, it will probably be India’s most-valued stock, according to finance minister Arun Jaitley.
But others, including HDFC Life, New India Assurance, GIC Re, and Reliance General Insurance are lined up.

Best Inc.’s (BSTI) Much Smaller IPO: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Majority shareholder Alibaba said it may chip in and buy up to 150 million of ADSs on the IPO terms, the company said in its latest filing.
In China, Best is a B2B and B2C supply chain provider that also has a proprietary tech section, Best Cloud.
“We believe we are well positioned to transform the logistics and supply chain industry in China and capture growth opportunities in the New Retail era, which is the seamless integration of online and offline retail to offer a consumer-centric, omni-channel and global shopping experience through digitization and just-in-time delivery,” the company said in its IPO filing.
In addition, the company received funding from Cainiao Network, which is also one of its largest logistic partners.
For the six months ended June 30, 2017, revenue was $1.2 billion, up 133.5% from the same six months a year ago.
It’s also bullish on the need for more convenience stores across China.
“In 2016, there were around 6.6 million convenience stores in China, including chains and mom-and-pop shops which collectively generated $340 billion of sales,” the company said.
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Draper Oakwood Technology Acquisition, Inc. Completes $50,000,000 Initial Public Offering

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Draper Oakwood Technology Acquisition, Inc. (Nasdaq: DOTAU) (“Draper Oakwood” or the “Company”), a company formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition or other similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities, today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 5,000,000 units at a price to the public of $10.00 per unit, with the offering raising gross proceeds of $50,000,000.
EarlyBirdCapital, Inc. acted as sole book-running manager and I-Bankers Securities, Inc. and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. acted as co-managers of the offering.
Of the proceeds received from the consummation of the initial public offering and a simultaneous private placement of units, $50,000,000 (or $10.00 per unit sold in the public offering) was placed in trust.
Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP acted as counsel to the Company and Graubard Miller acted as counsel to the underwriters.
A registration statement relating to these securities was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 14, 2017.
Copies of the prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained by contacting EarlyBirdCapital, Inc., 366 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10017.
Draper Oakwood is led by Executive Chairman Rod Perry and Chief Executive Officer Aamer Sarfraz.