Mister Car Wash started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
NYSE
It’s another big day in the IPO market with seven companies, including five in the biotechnology space, making their trading debuts.
Mister Car Wash and MissFresh are the sole non-healthcare-related companies. Making up the biotech group: Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Alpha Teknova, Elevation Oncology, GH Research, and Graphite Bio.
Mister Car Wash kicked off life as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange. The rest are listed on the Nasdaq.
Seventeen companies were expected to list their shares this week; so far, 16 have priced. Several had strong opening days. On Thursday, Doximity (ticker: DOCS), which provides a cloud-based digital platform for doctors, rocketed 104%, while biotech Miromatrix Medical (MIRO) soared 69%, and data-streaming platform Confluent closed up 25%. On Wednesday, employment-screening firm First Advantage Corp (FA) rose 31%, while software company Sprinklr (CXM) gained 10%. Full Truck Alliance (YMM), the so-called Uber for trucks in China, gained 13% on Tuesday.
On Friday, the biggest deal came from Mister Car Wash (MCW), which raised $562.5 million. The company priced 37.5 million shares at $15, the bottom of its $15-to-$17 price range. Shares of Mister Car Wash started out at $18.90, peaked at $21.22 and recently changed hands at $20.35, up nearly 36%.
Founded in 1996, Mister Car Wash offers exterior and interior car cleaning services at 344 locations in 21 states, the prospectus said.
Three biotechs—GH Research, Graphite Bio, and Alpha Teknova—boosted the size of their deals and priced at the top of their expected ranges.
GH Research (GHRS) raised $160 million after selling 10 million shares at $16 each. It had filed to offer 8.3 million shares at $14 to $16 each. Shares opened at $22, hit a high of $24.19 and recently changed hands at $21.60, up 35%.
GH is developing medications to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders with an initial focus on depression, a prospectus said.
Graphite Bio’s (GRPH) stock, meanwhile, kicked off at $22.10 and peaked at $23. Shares recently traded at $20.98, up more than 23%. The company sold 14 million shares at $17 each, up from the 12.5 million shares at $15 to $17 each it had planned to offer.
Graphite Bio’s gene-editing platform aims to treat illnesses by correcting mutations, or replacing disease-causing cells or inserting new genes. Its lead product candidate targets sickle cell disease, a prospectus said.
Alpha Teknova (TKNO) opened with shares launching at $20.72. The stock hit a high of $23 and recently changed hands at $22.90, up 43% from the offer price.
Alpha Teknova came in at $96 million after selling 6 million shares at $16. The company had planned to offer 5 million shares at $14 to $16 each. Alpha provides reagents to 3,000 customers in the life sciences and pharmaceutical market.
Acurx Pharmaceuticals (ACXP) delivered Friday’s smallest deal and was the first to begin trading. Shares opened at $5.95, peaked at $8.27 and recently traded at $8, up 33% from their offer price.
The company raised $15 million after selling 2.5 million shares at $6. Acurx is developing antibiotics for infections that are resistant to treatment like Clostridium difficile (C-diff), Enterococcus, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus.
While several IPOs rose in the aftermarket Friday, Elevation Oncology (ELEV) and Missfresh (MF) weren’t as lucky. Neither stock has traded at or above its offer price. Shares of Elevation opened at $14 and rose to a high of $14.50. The stock recently traded at $11.79, down 26% from its offer price, making Elevation a so-called busted deal.
Elevation is developing therapeutics to treat genomically defined cancer. Late Thursday, the biotech collected $100 million after selling 6.25 million at $16, the midpoint of its $15-to-$17 price range.
Shares of Missfresh (MF) opened at $10.65, hit a high of $11 and dropped. The stock recently changed hands at $8.73, down nearly 33% from its offer price, also making it a broken deal.
Missfresh, a Beijing online grocery start-up, collected $273 million. The company had filed to offer 21 million American Depositary shares at $13 to $16 each. Each AD share represents three Class B ordinary shares, a prospectus said. It ended up selling 21 million shares at $13, the bottom of its price range, a person familiar with the situation said.
Write to Luisa Beltran at [email protected]
