Last year was a huge boon to the initial public offering market, when 222 companies went public — the highest number since the dot com bubble of 2000. But 2014 will likely blow past last year’s performance; already, 215 companies have gone public this year.
Of course, the most talked about IPO so far is Alibaba (BABA, Financial), the Chinese e-commerce company that raised $25 billion, making it the largest IPO of all time. Other anticipated IPOs that may come later this year include Gilt Groupe, a site that sells designer clothing at deep discounts, and Glassdoor, a job and career site.
Here are the statuses and descriptions of companies set to go public today:
Fairmount Santrol (FMSA, Financial)
Status: Trading
Fairmount Santrol is the second-largest producer in the U.S. of sand and sand-based products used in oil and gas exploration and production. It began trading on the NYSE today, with 25 million shares of common stock priced at $16 per share. It’s intra-day high so far is $16.80.
The company’s opening price and volume was downsized due to “challenging market conditions,” according to Fairmount’s spokeswoman. In regulatory filings, Fairmount had planned to sell 44.5 million shares for $21-24 per share, which would have valued the IPO at more than $1 billion.
Status: Trading
Yodlee CEO Anil Arora rang the opening bell at NASDAQ today when Yodlee began trading 6.3 million shares at $12 per share. The company raised $75 million in the IPO, which values Yodlee at $340 million.
The stock price increased by as much as 40% and reached an intra-day high of $17.67.
Yodlee is a technology and applications platform for digital financial services in the cloud. A big data practitioner, the company leverages transaction data from more than 12,500 global sources. The data analytics provides customers with market insights based on actual behaviors.
Websites that work with Yodlee include Credit Karma, Xero (XRO, Financial) Â and BillGuard.
Status: Trading
Dermira is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in dermatology, specifically, acne, excessive sweating, and psoriasis. The company is offering 7.8 million shares priced at $16 each, and expects to raise $117 million from the IPO. This is a 46% increase from the 5.4 million shares Dermira had previously planned to offer.
The company has one drug that is currently approved and marketed to treat moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, and four others that are in various stages of development.
Despite having $68 million in deficits and no revenue, Dermira’s IPO performed well and achieved the high end of the target range.
Eyegate Pharmaceuticals
Proposed ticker: EYEG
Status: Postponed
Eyegate is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company that develops therapeutics and drug delivery systems to treat eye diseases. The company’s lead product, EGP-437, is currently in the third phase of clinical trials to treat inflammation in the middle layer of the eye.
EGP-437 is used with the Eyegate II Delivery System. The delivery system is designed to address two major issues in ophthalmology: lack of patient compliance and safety.
Eyegate planned to offer 1.9 million shares on the NASDAQ at a price range of $12-14 per share, but has postponed the IPO due to concerns of a volatile market. The company did not make an official comment on when the IPO would be released.
