Opening Day: Coya goes public in last week of quiet year

Geely’s Zeekr and VinFast among in-focus, upcoming IPOs

Coya Therapeutics went public this week, making it the last IPO of the year. Meanwhile, entertainment and technology platform LiveOne announced that Courtside Group, doing business as PodcastOne, filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned spin-out and special dividend to LiveOne’s stockholders of record on January 16, 2023.

LATEST IPOS AND DIRECT LISTINGS:

Coya Therapeutics (COYA) opened on December 29 at $4.75. The clinical-stage biotechnology company developing proprietary therapies to enhance the function of regulatory T cells, or "Tregs," had priced its initial public offering of 3,050,000 shares of its common stock and accompanying warrants to purchase up to 1,525,000 shares of common stock. The warrants are being offered and sold at the rate of one warrant for every two shares of common stock purchased in the offering, with each full warrant having an exercise price of $7.50 per share. Each share of common stock and accompanying warrant is being sold at a combined offering price of $5.00.

PERFORMANCE:

• Coya Therapeutics ended Friday at $4.74.

UPCOMING IPOS:

Upcoming IPO and direct listings expected include Zeekr, VinFast (VFS), Immrsiv (IMSV), PodcastONE, and Merqueo Holdings (MERQ).

Zeekr, the upscale unit of Chinese EV maker Geely Automobile (GELYF), has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering that values the company at more than $10B, reports Julie Zhu and Scott Murdoch for Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. "The plans come as the brand, which competes with Tesla (TSLA) and Chinese peer Nio (NIO), sets its sights on marketing its 001 crossover" in Europe for 2023, added the Reuters story.

VinFast Trading & Investment announced that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC, relating to the proposed initial public offering of its ordinary shares. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. VinFast intends to list its ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "VFS."

Entertainment and technology platform LiveOne (LVO) announced that Courtside Group, doing business as PodcastOne, filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned spin-out and special dividend to LiveOne’s stockholders of record on January 16, 2023. PodcastOne is expected to record revenues of $25M for the first nine months of fiscal 2023 ending December 31, 2022. LiveOne said it remains committed to spinning-out PodcastOne as a separate public company to be listed on a national exchange. In connection with such spin-out, LiveOne has moved the record date to Jan. 16, 2023 for PodcastOne’s special dividend to LiveOne’s stockholders of record. In addition, LiveOne intends to explore spinning-out SlackerOne as a separate public company during its 2024 fiscal year.

Immrsiv filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for initial public offering on the Nasdaq under symbol "IMSV." Immrsiv describes itself as a Southeast Asia education and training software company, based in Singapore that specializes in geospatial-based immersive media solutions. "We seek to be one of the largest Asian subscription-based platforms for travel, training and education app equipped with AR/VR/MR content. We are enabling new experiences with a focus on Asia Pacific, in travel, and enhancement to education using innovative technology," the company said in the filing. Immrsiv derives a significant portion of revenue from providing content development and consultancy services within its training sector, particularly to the Ministry of Defence of the Singapore government.

Merqueo Holdings, which describes itself as "Latin America’s first vertically-integrated digital grocery retailer with operations in both Colombia and Brazil," has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of its ordinary shares. The company intends to list its ordinary shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol "MERQ."

Opening Day" is The Fly’s recurring series of stories on the latest initial public offerings, their performance, analyst commentary and upcoming IPOs.

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