Image Source: Kevin Smith on Flickr

A trio of biotech companies' shares rose on Friday in their first trading sessions. Bicara Therapeutics, MBX Biosciences, and Zenas BioPharma each sold more shares in their respective initial public offerings than they had planned.

Meanwhile, earlier in the week, Galaxy Payroll, a Hong Kong-based provider of outsourced payroll and employment services, raised about $7 million in a downsized IPO after the company had previously filed to raise $8 million.

Latest IPOs and Direct Listings

Bicara Therapeutics (BCAX) opened on Sept. 13 at $26.25. Bicara, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that says it is "committed to bringing transformative bifunctional therapies to patients with solid tumors," priced 17.5 million shares at $18.00. The deal size was increased to 17.5 million shares from 11.8 million, and was priced at the high end of the $16.00-$18.00 target range.

MBX Biosciences (MBX) opened on Sept. 13 at $23.00 after having priced 10.2 million shares at $16.00. The deal size was increased to 10.2 million shares from 8.2 million, and was priced at the high end of the $14.00-$16.00 range. MBX is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel precision peptide therapies for the treatment of endocrine and metabolic disorders.

Zenas BioPharma (ZBIO) opened on Sept. 13 at $18.35 after the company priced 13.24 million shares at $17.00. The deal size was increased to 13.24 million shares from 11.76 million, and was priced at the midpoint of the $16.00-$18.00 target range. Zenas is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that says it is "committed to being a leader in the development and commercialization of transformative immunology-based therapies."

Galaxy Payroll (GLXG) opened on Sept. 12 at $4.44. The payroll outsourcing service, employment service and consultancy and market research service provider based in Hong Kong had priced its initial public offering of 1.75 million shares at a public offering price of $4.00 per share.

Trident Digital (TDTH) opened on Sept. 10 at $4.50. The digital transformation enabler in the small and medium enterprise, or the SME, segment of the e-commerce enablement and digital optimization services market in Singapore had priced its initial public offering of 1.8 million American Depositary Shares, or "ADSs," with each ADS representing eight Class B Ordinary Shares of the company, at a price to the public of $5.00 per ADS. The deal range was $5.00-$7.00.

XCHG (XCH) opened on Sept. 10 at $7.25. The company which offers integrated EV charging solutions had priced its initial public offering of 3.3 million American Depositary Shares at $6.20 per ADS.

End of the Week Performance

• Bicara Therapeutics closed the week at $23.41
• MBX Biosciences closed the week at $23.65
• Zenas BioPharma closed the week at $18.15
• Galaxy Payroll closed the week at $4.45
• Trident Digital closed the week at $3.70
• XCHG closed the week at $7.90

Recent SPAC IPOs

Future Vision II Acquisition (FVN) opened on Sept. 12 at $10.01. The blank check company said that, "While we will not be limited to a particular industry in our identification and acquisition of a target company, we intend to focus our search on businesses within the technology, media, and telecommunications sector."

Upcoming IPOs

Upcoming IPO and direct listings expected include Basel Medical Group, Megan Holdings, Health In Tech, Yi Yue Digital, YXT.com, Fast Track Group, AoChuang Holdings, ShipBob, and StubHub.

Basel Medical Group filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq under the symbol "BMGL." Cathay Securities is serving as the underwriter on the deal. Basel is a healthcare provider across Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Megan Holdings filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of 1.25 million ordinary shares of Megan Holdings Limited, a Cayman Islands exempted company, which is being conducted on a firm commitment basis.

"We expect that the offering price of our Ordinary Shares in this offering will be between US$4.00 and US$6.00 per share. Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our Ordinary Shares. We have applied to list our Ordinary Shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol 'MGN'," the filing stated.

Health In Tech has filed with the SEC for a firm commitment initial public offering of shares of Class A Common Stock, and it anticipates that the initial public offering price of its shares will be between $4.00 and $5.00 per share. The company has applied to have its Class A Common Stock listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "HIT."

The company's prospectus states: "Health in Tech is an insurance technology platform company, which offers a marketplace that aims to improve processes in the healthcare industry through vertical integration, process simplification, and automation. By removing friction and complexities, we streamline the underwriting, sales and service process for insurance companies, licensed brokers, and TPAs."

Yi Yue Digital Technology has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of ordinary shares and applied to list its ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "YYDT." The company's prospectus states the following: 

"Shenzhen Yi Yue Digital Technology Co., Ltd is a Software as a Service - SaaS - digital technology provider focusing on the specific field of beauty industry. The Company is founded in September 2021, headquartered in the city of Shenzhen, and it has 8 branches in mainland China with the number of employees is more than 200...

"The Company is committed to supporting beauty industry and health institutions to build scientific and efficient management through SaaS plus supply chain service. The Company helps SaaS users maintain sustainable profitable operation, by relying on AI and big data technology. The service provided by the Company can help connect suppliers and customers work together, forming a closed loop of Online to Offline - O2O - e-commerce transactions and services."

YXT.com has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of American depositary shares, or ADSs. The prospectus states:

"We are a leader and disruptor of the digital corporate learning industry in China, a market with massive rigid-demand and a total size of RMB126.0 billion in 2023, according to Frost & Sullivan. We have innovated a SaaS model that integrates software and content, effectively assisting customers in the digital transformation of corporate learning.

"According to Frost & Sullivan, we are the largest digital corporate learning solution provider in China in terms of total revenue, subscription revenue and number of subscription customers in 2023. With our software, we help customers efficiently deploy cloud-based learning platforms at scale. We also offer a broad range of high-quality content, covering the entire corporate learning process of our customers."

Fast Track Group filed for an initial public offering of 3.75 million ordinary shares. Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for its ordinary shares. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price per share will be between $4-$5. The company has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "FTRK."

AoChuang Holdings filed with the SEC for an initial public offering on a firm commitment basis of 1.25 million ordinary shares. The Cayman Islands-exempted company with limited liability whose principal place of business is in the People's Republic of China expects that the initial public offering price will be in the range of $4.00 to $6.00 per Ordinary Share. The company has applied to list the ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "ANE."

The company's prospectus states the following:

"We are a passenger electric vehicles, or EVs, retailer and comprehensive automobile service provider in Hainan Province, China. Leveraging the beneficial local government policy for EV promotion in Hainan Province, we strategically focus our operation on sales and services of EVs instead of internal combustion engine vehicles, or ICEVs. We maintain dealership agreements with well-known EV manufacturers in China to operate our 4S dealership stores for a diversified portfolio of popular EV brands, consisting of Geely Geometry, Ora, Chery New Energy, and GAC Trumpchi."

ShipBob has selected JPMorgan (JPM) to lead its planned listing, Bloomberg's Amy Or, Gillian Tan, and Ryan Gould reported earlier this year, citing people familiar with the situation. The Chicago-based e-commerce fulfillment service provider has also chosen Citigroup (C) as part of the syndicate, the authors said. An initial public offering could occur as soon as later this year and could value the company at $4 billion, the authors noted.

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