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Shares of Johnson & Johnson's consumer-health spin-off Kenvue soared 20% in their market debut on Thursday, making it the biggest U.S. IPO in over a year. Under Kenvue's umbrella are widely-known consumer brands like Band-Aid, Tylenol, Listerine, Neutrogena, Aveeno, and J&J's baby powder.

Latest IPOs and Direct Listings

Kenvue (KVUE) opened for trading on May 4 at $25.53. The company had priced its 172.8 million share IPO at $22.00. Kenvue, which says it will be "the world's largest pure-play consumer health company by revenue," began trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KVUE" in connection with its initial public offering being conducted to spin the company off from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Acelyrin (SLRN) opened for trading on the Nasdaq on May 5 at $23. The late-stage clinical biopharma company, which is focused on accelerating the development and delivery of transformative medicines in immunology, priced its upsized initial public offering of 30 million shares of common stock at a price to the public of $18.00 per share.

SPAC IPOs This Week

• Golden Star Acquisition (GODN) opened for trading on May 2 at $10.16.

Performance

• Kenvue ended the week at $26.50.
• Acelyrin closed Friday at $23.50.

Recent IPOs to Watch

Cytomed Therapeutics (GDTC), VCI Global (VCIG), and Golden Heaven (GDHG) are among stocks that could see new coverage roll out this upcoming week as the quiet periods for banks that underwrote the companies' IPOs expire.

Upcoming IPOs

Upcoming IPO and direct listings expected include SoftBank's Arm, SeatGeek, Lottomatica, Alibaba's Freshippo, and Zeekr.

SoftBank Group (SFTBY), which said in March it planned to list chip maker Arm Ltd in the U.S. stock market, has filed with regulators confidentially for a U.S. stock market listing, people familiar with the matter told Reuters' Anirban Sen and Echo Wang. Arm plans to sell its shares on Nasdaq later this year, seeking to raise between $8 billion and $10 billion, setting the stage for this year's largest initial public offering, the sources said.

SoftBank has been targeting a listing for Arm, which competes with Intel (INTC) and others, since its deal to sell the semi chip designer to Nvidia (NVDA) for $40 billion collapsed last year because of objections from antitrust regulators, the report noted.

Event ticketing company SeatGeek filed confidentially with regulators this month for an initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said, adding itself to a long list of firms aiming for IPOs once market conditions improve, The Information's Cory Weinberg reports.

Lottomatica, the Italian gambling company backed Apollo Global Management (APO), plans to begin taking investor orders as soon as this week for an initial public offering that could raise about EUR 600 million to EUR 700 million, Bloomberg's Swetha Gopinath and Daniele Lepido report, citing people familiar with the matter.

Freshippo, the Alibaba (BABA) grocery chain known for selling cooked lobsters and grouper freshly chosen from fish-tanks in the store, has started preparations for a Hong Kong initial public offering, Bloomberg's Pei Li and Manuel Baigorri report, citing people familiar with the matter.

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 $10 billion, reported Julie Zhu and Scott Murdoch for Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. "The plans come as the brand, which competes with Tesla and Chinese peer Nio, sets its sights on marketing its 001 crossover" in Europe for 2023, added the Reuters story.

Instacart has been priming for a public market debut, but a potential IPO of the food and grocery delivery company may be delayed by a slowdown in growth as Instacart saw its gross order volume grow between 5% and 10% compared to the same period last year in the first quarter, down from the 16% growth rate seen for all of 2022, people briefed on the matter told The Information's Cory Weinberg.

Instacart competes in the same space as public companies that include Uber and DoorDash.

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