U.S. IPO Week Ahead: Waste Giant GFL Recycles Its Billion-Dollar IPO
Summary
- As the IPO market reels from the effects of the coronavirus, just one billion-dollar deal is scheduled for the week ahead, following a 9% drop in the Renaissance IPO Index and the largest spike in the VIX volatility index since Black Monday 2011.
- GFL Environmental, North America's fourth-largest diversified waste management firm, plans to raise $1.5 billion at a $7.3 billion market cap in a dual listing on the NYSE and the TSX.
- Madewell, Cole Haan, Vontier, Imara, AZEK, and Warner Music all signaled IPO launches in early March.
As the IPO market reels from the effects of the coronavirus, just one billion-dollar deal is scheduled for the week ahead, following a 9% drop in the Renaissance IPO Index and the largest spike in the VIX volatility index since Black Monday 2011.
GFL Environmental (GFL), North America's fourth-largest diversified waste management firm, plans to raise $1.5 billion at a $7.3 billion market cap in a dual listing on the NYSE and the TSX. The company will also raise $700 million in a concurrent tangible equity unit offering. Since postponing its IPO plans in November 2019, peers have traded strongly (until this week), revenue and cash flow have improved, and the consolidator bought two companies for $865 million. Backed by BC Partners, GFL has borrowed heavily to fund its M&A spree, and even after paying down debt by more than $2 billion, it will remain highly levered post-IPO (5.3x net debt/LTM adj. EBITDA).
Madewell (MDWL), Cole Haan (CLHN), Vontier (VNT), Imara (IMRA), AZEK (AZEK), and Warner Music (WMGC) all signaled IPO launches in early March. However, recent turmoil has likely shut the IPO window for most companies, except biotechs, certain defensive names like GFL, and highly attractive or highly discounted businesses.
Street research is expected for seven companies in the week ahead.
Issuer | Deal Size | Price Range | Top |
|---|---|---|---|
GFL Environmental | $1,500M | $20 - $21 | JP Morgan |
North America's fourth-largest diversified waste management firm. | |||
IPO Market Snapshot
The Renaissance IPO Indices are market cap weighted baskets of newly public companies. As of 2/27/20, the Renaissance IPO Index was up 1.4% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 was down 7.8%. Renaissance Capital's IPO ETF (NYSE: IPO) tracks the index, and top ETF holdings include Uber (UBER) and Spotify (SPOT). The Renaissance International IPO Index was up 2.2% year-to-date, while the ACWX was down 9.3%. Renaissance Capital's International IPO ETF (NYSE: IPOS) tracks the index, and top ETF holdings include Adyen and Meituan-Dianping.
Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
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