One point of contention was that Gores
Group, as sponsor, had hoped to claw back
US$2m from interest earned on IPO
proceeds held in trust. That was scaled
back to US$750,000 on the final iteration.
“They have a good track record, so there
was demand for the IPO,” one banker away
from the IPO told IFR. “There was a little
bit of philosophical debate.”
With higher interest rates, hedge funds’
costs of leveraging SPAC investments are
rising. Higher costs, however, are offset by
interest earned on proceeds held in trust.
Gores Group cut into that take.
Another point of pushback was that Gores
Group has yet to close an acquisition for
Gores Holdings II. It did sign an agreement
in June to acquire Verra Mobility, a portfolio
company of Platinum Equity, but has yet to
secure shareholder approval.
Moving forward with the third vehicle,
when the second is not done, and taking
the interest proceeds gives a taint of
dealmaker over operator.AT HOME SPONSORS SELL AGAINBank of America Merrill Lynch braved tough
ECM conditions late on Thursday to bring
a US$332m block of shares in home décor
superstore retailer AT HOME on behalf of its
financial sponsors.
BAML reoffered 10m At Home shares or
nearly 16% of shares outstanding atUS$33.20 each, near the bottom of the
US$33.15-$33.55 marketing range and a
2.4% discount to the prior close of
US$34.00.
Early in Friday’s aftermarket session, the
shares were trading at US$32.42 or below
the reoffer price.
The bank was returning to the name
after buying the last At Home block (8m
shares) in June at the higher price of
US$37.81.
The lower mark was not ideal, though
selling sponsors AEA Investors and Starr
Investments have been ritually offloading
At Home stock roughly every three
months this year.
With the stock down 4.4% in Thursday’s
session ahead of the deal, some investors
may also have seen the block coming.
At Home revealed last month that its
chief financial officer is stepping down
later this month, though it still reported
strong second-quarter results, including
2.8% comp store growth.
Riding the surprising recovery this year in
bricks-and-mortar retail stocks and At
Home’s late-blossoming share price after
initially stumbling in the months right after
its August 2016 IPO priced at US$15.00, the
two sponsors have now pared their stake to
a combined 28% (about 18m shares) from
nearly 90% right after the IPO.
There is a 30-day lock-up on further
sales.FREELANCE WORK PLATFORM
HEADS FOR NASDAQ IPOUPWORK, an online marketplace for
freelance work, joined an expanding
queue of late 2018 tech IPO aspirants by
filing for a US$100m Nasdaq IPO that could
price as early as October.
Citigroup, Jefferies, RBC Capital Markets,
Stifel and JMP Securities are listed as leads.
Upwork, formed from the merger of
online talent marketplaces Elance and
Odesk in 2014, filed confidentially in early
June.
The company’s platform enabled
US$1.56bn of “gross services volume”
across 2m projects in the year ended June
30 2018.
In the first six months of this year,
Upwork reported a net loss of US$7.2m
and adjusted Ebitda of US$256,000 from
sales of US$121.9m, the latter up 28% and
comprised mostly of marketplace
revenues.
The company was operating cash flow
positive in the same period and goes into
the IPO with US$31.3m of cash.
In a letter included in its IPO filing, CEO
Stephane Kasriel said technology was
enabling an increased number of people to
work how, where, when and with whom
they please while businesses needed better
access to talent in order to remain
competitive.International Financing Review September 8 2018 95EQUITIES AMERICAS
ECM DEALS: WEEK ENDING 7/9/2018
Stock Country Date Amount Price Deal type Bookrunner(s)
Larsen & Toubro Infotech India 02 /09/18 Rs18bn Rs1,7 00 Follow-on (secondary) Axis, Citigroup, Goldman, HSBC, JM,Motilal
Ascendas REIT Singapore 06/09/18 S$452m S$2.54 Follow-on (primary) DBS, JP Morgan
Asahi Group Japan 05 /09/18 ¥13bn ¥4,809 Follow-on (secondary) Nomura
Oceania Healthcare New Zealand 05 /09/18 NZ$105m NZ$1. 10 Follow-on (secondary) Deutsche Craigs, First NZ Capital, Macquarie
Zai Lab China 06/09/18 US$150m US$ 20 Follow-on (primary) Citigroup, JP Morgan, Jefferies, Leerink
Nearmap Australia 06/09/18 A$70m A$1.60 Follow-on (primary) Canaccord Genuity, Macquarie
Dhofar Generating Company Oman 02 /09/18 OR20m OR0.225 IPO EFH Hermes
Ambu Denmark 04 /09/2018 DKr2.97bn DKr22 0 ABB (secondary) Danske Bank, JP Morgan
Sabre Insurance Group UK 04 /09/2018 £116.4m 260p ABB (secondary) Barclays
Saras Italy 05 /09/2018 €190m €2 ABB (secondary) BAML
Charter Court Financial Servicesp UK 05 /09/2018 £51m 3 40p ABB (secondary) Barclays
Plus500 UK 06/09/2018 £145m £15.50 Accelerated bookbuild (Secondary) Liberum
Plus500 UK 06/09/2018 £175.6m £15. 40 Accelerated bookbuild (Secondary) Credit Suisse
MedMen Enterprises Canada 06/09/2018 C$75.0m C$5.50 Accelerated bookbuild (Primary) Eight Capital, Cormark
Stelco Holdings Canada 05 /09/2018 C$181.2m C$22.65 Follow-on (Secondary) Goldman Sachs
Zai Lab China 05 /09/2018 US$150.0m US$150.0m Follow-on (Primary) JP Morgan, Citigroup, Jefferies, Leerink
ProQR Therapeutics Netherlands 06/09/2018 US$90.6m US$15. 75 Follow-on (Primary) Citigroup, Evercore, RBC Capital Markets
Agree Realty US 04 /09/2018 US$193.2m US$55. 20 Accelerated bookbuild (Primary) Citigroup, Jefferies
At Home US 06/09/2018 US$332.0m US$33. 20 Accelerated bookbuild (Secondary) BAML
Churchill Capital US 06/09/2018 US$600.0m US$10.00 IPO (Primary) Citigroup
Dicerna Pharmaceuticals US 06/09/2018 US$100.0m US$13. 02 Follow-on-(Primary) Citigroup, Leerink Partners, Stifel
First Hawaiian US 05 /09/2018 US$577.0m US$28.85 Accelerated bookbuild (Secondary) JP Morgan, Barclays, BAML, Citigroup
Gores III US 06/09/2018 US$375.0m US$10.00 IPO (Primary) Deutsche Bank
KalVista Pharmaceuticals US 05 /09/2018 US$68.0m US$17.00 Accelerated bookbuild (Primary) Jefferies, Stifel, Cantor Fitzgerald
Nlight US 06/09/2018 US$119.3m US$26.50 Follow-on (Primary, Secondary) Stifel, Raymond James
Sun Communities US 04 /09/2018 US$440.0m US$100.10 Accelerated bookbuild (Primary) Citigroup, BAML, BMO CM, RBC CM
Tilly’s US 06/09/2018 US$101.8m US$18.50 Follow-on (Secondary) BAML10 Equities and SE 2250 p81-98.indd 95 07/09/2018 20:19:33