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Shares of Bruush Oral Care were sharply lower in their first day of trading on the Nasdaq, while Magic Empire Global followed in the footsteps of another Hong Kong-based fintech company with an explosion higher after coming public in the U.S. In SPAC news, Seamless is going public via a combination with the special purpose acquisition company and Bridger Aerospace is merging with Jack Creek Investment.

Latest IPOs and Direct Listings

Bruush Oral Care (BRSH) opened on Aug. 3 at $2.85. The company had priced its initial public offering of 3,728,549 units at a combined public offering price of $4.16 per unit and its shares opened for trading at $2.85 per share and 33c per warrant. Each unit offered consisted of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase one share of common stock, with an initial exercise price of $4.16 per share.

Aegis Capital acted as sole bookrunner on the $15.5 million IPO of Bruush, an e-commerce business with a product portfolio that currently consists of a sonic-powered electric toothbrush kit and brush head refills.

Magic Empire Global (MEGL) opened on Aug. 5 at $50 per share. The financial services provider in Hong Kong, which principally engages in the provision of corporate finance advisory services and underwriting services, priced its initial public offering of 5 million shares at $4.00 per share. Network 1 Financial Securities acted as sole book runner and lead underwriter for the offering.

The price action in Magic Empire calls to mind another Hong Kong-based fintech company, AMTD Digital (HKD), which has been the focus of attention after it went public in mid-July at $7.80 per ADS and proceeded to jump over 21,000%.

Despite some calling it the latest obsession of retail traders and comparing the wild trading to GameStop's (GME) in 2021 due to a surge of interest from Reddit-based retail investors, Andrew Left's Citron Research says AMTD Digital is “Not a meme stock.” Although the “price is stupid,” Citron said, the stock “has not captured the imagination of retail traders like GME.”

SPAC IPOs This Week

• Mobiv Acquisition (MOBV) opened on Aug. 4 at $10.02.
• Pono Capital Two (PTWO) opened on Aug. 5 at $10.02.

Performance

• Bruush Oral Care finished the week at $2.25.
• Magic Empire Global closed Friday at $97.

SPAC News This Week

Seamless Group, which says it "delivers global financial inclusivity for the unbanked and migrant workers in South East Asia," and InFinT Acquisition (IFIN), a special purpose acquisition company, earlier announced the signing of a definitive business combination agreement that is expected to result in a newly-combined company currently known as Seamless, to be rebranded as part of the business combination.

Upon closing of the transaction, the company will continue to be led by Seamless' CEO, Ronnie Hui, and Founder, Alex Kong. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Seamless will combine with InFinT and will become a publicly traded entity under a new company name. The transaction values Seamless at an enterprise value at closing of $400 million.

Bridger Aerospace Group, an independent provider of aerial firefighting services, and Jack Creek Investment (JCIC), a special purpose acquisition company, announced a definitive merger agreement that will result in Bridger becoming a publicly traded company.

Upon completion of the proposed combination, the combined company will be named Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc. and is expected to list on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol 'BAER.' The business combination values Bridger at an implied $869 million pro forma enterprise value.

Recent IPOs to Watch

AMTD Digital, Intelligent Living Application Group (ILAG), and Nano Labs (NA) 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 Instacart, Forza X1, Starbox, GigaCloud, and Bitdefender.

Instacart, the grocery-delivery company that competes with offerings from Amazon (AMZN), Uber (UBER), and DoorDash (DASH), still expects to go public before year's end despite 2022 to date being "one of the slowest years for IPOs in more than a decade," The Wall Street Journal's Berber Jin, Corrie Driebusch, Jaewon Kang, and Preetika Rana reported earlier this week.

Instacart confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the SEC earlier this year and is in the process of responding to comments from the SEC on its IPO documents, sources familiar with the matter told the reporters. Instacart, which had previously leaned toward going public via a direct listing, is now considering a traditional IPO so it could raise cash that could be used for future acquisitions, the sources said.

Forza X1 has filed with the SEC for a firm commitment initial public offering of shares of common stock, according to a regulatory filing. The company intends to apply to list its shares of common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol 'FRZA.' The company's prospectus related to the offering states:

"Forza X1 aims to be among the first to develop and manufacture fully electric, affordable boats with mass appeal... We believe we are one of the first companies to design a fully integrated electric boat including the hull, outboard motor and control system for mass production.

"We believe that the boating industry will follow in the footsteps of the electrification of the automotive industry by creating electric boats that meet or exceed the traditional boating consumers expectations of price, value and run times."

Starbox Group has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of its ordinary shares and said in its latest filing that it expects the initial public offering price of the shares to be in the range of $4.00 to $5.00 per share.

The company has reserved the symbol 'STBX' for purposes of listing its ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market and have applied to list the shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market. It is a condition to the closing of the offering that the shares qualify for listing on a national securities exchange.

GigaCloud Technology has filed a preliminary prospectus with the SEC for an initial public offering of its Class A ordinary shares. The company has applied to list its Class A ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol 'GCT.' Aegis Capital is the sole book-running manager for the offering. In its prospectus, GigaCloud states in part:

"We are a pioneer of global end-to-end B2B ecommerce solutions for large parcel merchandise. Our B2B ecommerce platform, which we refer to as the 'GigaCloud Marketplace,' integrates everything from discovery, payments and logistics tools into one easy-to-use platform...

"GigaCloud Marketplace is one of the fastest growing large parcel B2B marketplaces with over $190.5 million, $414.2 million and $438.1 million of gross merchandise value, or GMV, transacted in our marketplace in 2020, 2021 and the 12 months ended March 31, 2022, respectively." 

Bitdefender Holding B.V., which identifies itself as "a global cybersecurity leader," announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form F-1 to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission for the proposed initial public offering of its securities in the United States.

"The timing, size and price range for the proposed offering have yet to be determined. The initial public offering is subject to SEC and other regulatory review processes, as well as market and other conditions," the company said. Bitdefender did not disclose a proposed ticker symbol for its anticipated stock offering.

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