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Shares of Hong Kong-based asset management company Prestige Wealth more than doubled in value on Friday as they continued to soar after their trading debut on Thursday. This was another slow week for initial public offerings in the U.S. So far, 2023 has seen only 80 IPOs, compared to 125 in 2022 by July 9.

Latest IPOs and Direct Listings

Prestige Wealth (PWM) opened on July 6 at $4.85. The wealth management and asset management services provider based in Hong Kong had announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 1 million ordinary shares at a public offering price of $5.00 per share.

Proceeds from the offering "will be used for brand promotion, hiring of additional client relationship managers and employees, expansion of products and services, and general working capital," the company said in a statement.

Performance

• Prestige Wealth ended the week at $19.09.

Upcoming IPOs

Upcoming IPO and direct listings expected include Simpple, Pixie Dust, SoftBank's Arm, Alibaba's Freshippo, and Zeekr.

Simpple filed an initial public offering of 1.625 million ordinary shares. The estimated initial public offering price is expected to be between $4.00-$5.00 per share. The company has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "SPPL."

Pixie Dust filed an initial public offering of its common shares, represented by American Depositary Shares. Each ADS represents one common share, and the company is offering 2 mullion such shares.

Pixie Dust currently expects the initial public offering price to be between $9.00-$10.00 per ADS. Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for Pixie Dust common shares or ADSs. Pixie Dust intends to apply to list the American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "PXDT."

SoftBank Group (SFTBY), which said in March it planned to list chip maker Arm Ltd in the U.S. stock market, 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 and others, since its deal to sell the semi chip designer to Nvidia for $40 billion collapsed last year because of objections from antitrust regulators, the report noted.

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), confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering that values the company at more than $10 billion, reports 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.

Other IPO News

German sandal maker Birkenstock, which is owned by an affiliate of LVMH (LVMUY), is getting ready to explore becoming a public company via an initial public offering, report Bloomberg's Eyk Henning and Crystal Tse.

The German sandal maker could be valued at more than $6 billion in an IPO, said one of the sources, added Bloomberg. Other public companies in the casual shoe and sneaker space include Allbirds, Skechers, Deckers Outdoor, Nike, and Crocs.

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