Friday, November 22, 2024

Vaccine Maker Raising $1 Billion Leads Post-Holiday Share Sales

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(Bloomberg) — A clutch of deals including a $1 billion offering of shares and pre-funded warrants kicked off what could be a busy fall for share sales of already-public companies on US exchanges.

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Vaxcyte Inc., a clinical stage vaccine company, led the charge with its $1 billion deal, just hours after reporting data from a recent study that sent its stock surging 36% Tuesday to a record close of $110.15.

Sales of new and existing shares in publicly traded companies were already elevated, with Walmart Inc.’s $3.6 billion exit from China’s JD.com Inc. helping to make August the busiest month since May for such deals, pushing the total to $13.6 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Several of the companies whose shareholders offered stakes following the first post-Labor Day session had recently held initial public offerings.

The nonprofit that was UL Solutions Inc.’s sole backer before the safety firm’s $946 million IPO in April is selling 20 million of its shares. The offering came after a 93% surge in UL’s shares since its debut, closing at $54.10 each on Tuesday. At the closing price, the stake would be worth $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Post-acute care facility operator PACS Group Inc., whose IPO raised $517.5 million, has also seen a sharp appreciation in its shares, climbing 88% since the debut to $39.53 apiece on Tuesday.

The firm announced an underwritten offering after markets closed, consisting of 2.8 million shares sold by the company and 11.1 million shares offered by shareholders. At Tuesday’s closing price, it would raise around $549 million.

Starwood Property Trust Inc. also announced the sale of 17.5 million shares, and intends to use the proceeds for purposes including originating and buying commercial mortgage loans as well as repaying debt, according to a statement. Starwood’s shares have fallen 2.2% this year, giving it a value of $6.5 billion.

(Updates throughout with additional share sales.)

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