ADVERTISEMENT

China’s Phoenix Tree Flat in Debut as U.S. Listings Restart

China’s Phoenix Tree Misses IPO Target as U.S. Listings Restart

(Bloomberg) -- Phoenix Tree Holdings Ltd., the largest of four companies making their U.S. trading debuts Friday, ended its opening session unchanged after shrinking its offering and pricing its shares below a targeted range.

The Chinese e-commerce company’s American depositary shares closed Friday at $13.50, the same price as in its initial public offering on Thursday. Phoenix Tree, which operates the co-living platform Danke Apartment, sold 9.6 million shares to raise about $130 million Thursday after marketing 10.6 million for $14.50 to $16.50.

Phoenix Tree’s debut and initial public offerings by three other companies -- two of them based in China -- delivered mixed results as U.S. listings restarted after a holiday break.

The listings followed a year in which investors were whipsawed by a landmark first half followed by a second half marred by disappointments, especially the demise of WeWork’s listing plans.

Uber Technologies Inc.’s $8.1 billion listing in May was among the 95 U.S. IPOs raising $32.4 billion through June 30 of 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compared with 87 listings raising $18.9 billion after July 1. Uber’s 23% share drop since its IPO has added to investor jitters.

Phoenix Tree’s offering was led by Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DNK, the company has a market value of $2.48 billion.

Velocity, Lizhi

Velocity Financial LLC, a mortgage lender based in Westlake Village, California, sold 7.25 million shares on Thursday for $13 each -- below the marketed range -- to raise about $94 million. The shares rose as much as 9.6% Friday and closed up 3.9% to $13.51, giving the company a market value of $257 million.

Shares of biotechnology company I-Mab priced its shares at $14 each, within its target range of $12 to $15, to raise about $104 million on Thursday. After initially rising as much as 13%, the shares sunk almost 11% to $12.50 on Friday, giving the company a value of $721 million.

Lizhi Inc., a platform for podcasts and other audio content, fared the best of the four. On Thursday it raised $45 million, pricing its 4.1 million shares at the bottom of its marketed range. Those shares rose as much as 39% Friday and closed up 5.7% to $11.63, valuing the company at $532 million.

Lizhi Chief Financial Officer Catherine Chen said in an interview that the company was aiming for long-term growth and wasn’t focused on short-term market considerations.

“The specific timing is not that important,” she said.

The only other listing in the U.S. this year has been Bogota Financial Corp., which raised about $57 million in its IPO Wednesday. Its shares have climbed 16% from its offer price.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Hytha in San Francisco at mhytha@bloomberg.net;Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong at jfioretti4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, ;Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Jeran Wittenstein

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.