Deliveroo and PensionBee are lining up to float on the market in the UK, while the IPO boom in the US is expected to continue
by Bethan Rees
Online pensions platform company PensionBee has announced plans to give its customers the opportunity to become shareholders, as part of its London Stock Exchange initial public offering (IPO) proposal, reports Sophie Smith for Pensions Age.
Working with PrimaryBid, an online platform that connects everyday investors to public companies raising capital, PensionBee is aiming to give its UK customers the chance to register their interest in buying shares in the company "or its future parent company, ahead of its prospective IPO", writes Smith. However, PensionBee has said that registering interest does not mean commitment for the future, and that no decision has been taken as to whether or not to proceed with an IPO.
The CEO of PensionBee, Romi Savova, is quoted in the article. She says, "Customers can too often be an afterthought during an IPO but our customers have always been at the heart of what we do, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them."
Pensions Age article
Deliver rumour?
Although not set in stone, food delivery company Deliveroo could be announcing its plan to float on the stock market early in March, writes Saleha Riaz for Yahoo Finance, which could see the company raising more than £2bn.
Rumours of the IPO have been circulating since September, she says, and last month a report valued Deliveroo at more than £5.1bn after its latest funding round. The company has also "beefed up its board", appointing Simon Wolfson, former CEO of Next, as non-executive director. This was "a move that was widely seen as an IPO preparation", Riaz says.
In 2019, the company invested heavily in technology, which led to a £319.9m loss. However, the Covid-19 pandemic "saw a significant rise in appetite for online food delivery", she writes, doubling its revenues in the UK and Ireland and making a profit in the second half of 2020.
Yahoo Finance article
The US IPO boom
In 2020, the US recorded 407 IPOs raising a total of US$145bn, despite the pandemic, writes Chelsea Lomprey for law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth in an article for the National Law Review. This was more than double the amount recorded in 2019 (195), which raised a total of US$56bn. Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) accounted for 230 of the 2020 IPOs, writes Lomprey.
Retailers made up a small proportion of the listings but there has been growth in this sector year-on-year, and Hunton Andrews Kurth expects this trend to continue in 2021, writes Lomprey. The article lists examples such as mattress retailer Casper, which filed its IPO in February 2020, and clothing reseller Poshmark, which completed its IPO in January 2021, raising US$277m.
As of early February 2021, the US recorded 189 IPOs, a significant increase compared to the 26 IPOs recorded in the same period in 2020. In the first week of 2021, 28 SPACs went public too, raising over US$6bn.
Market experts predict this IPO boom to continue this year, as "low interest rates and investor enthusiasm remain", writes Lomprey. Plus, Covid-19 vaccine rollouts may strengthen the opportunities for retailers.
National Law Review article