Anthony Hughes
3 min read
In This Article:
(Bloomberg) — Airo Group Holdings Inc. shares climbed 140% in their public trading debut on Friday after the company raised $60 million in an initial public offering, becoming the third company this month to more than double during its opening session.
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The stock pared earlier gains of as much as 291%, triggering volatility halts several times, to finish the day at $24 each on Friday in New York. The aerospace and defense tech firm on Thursday upsized its IPO to 6 million shares and priced the deal at $10 per share, below the marketed range of $14 to $16 apiece.
The frenetic start gives the company, which makes the bulk of its revenue from its drone-making segment, a market value of $622 million based on the outstanding shares in its filing. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Airo’s executive chairman, co-founder and largest shareholder, had indicated interest in buying as much as $5 million worth at the offering price, the filing showed.
Airo’s initial plan to go public in April had been frustrated by a spike in volatility, measured by the VIX Index, Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge. The more recent fall in the VIX back closer to 20, plus the strong performance of recent IPOs such as Circle Internet Group Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc and publicly-traded competitors to Airo such as AeroVironment Inc., had encouraged the company to revive the offering, Kathuria said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Having already met with investors in April, the offering was already well oversubscribed late Wednesday when Airo decided to reprise its plans to go public, enabling the deal to proceed after only a one-day roadshow and despite Thursday night’s attack by Israel on Iran unsettling markets.
“With Iran and Israel, we always hope for a peaceful result but that also feeds into the demand because there is a lot more appetite for aerospace and defense investments,” Kathuria said.
The debut surge, which pushed Airo’s market capitalization to about $1 billion at the highs, also came just two days after shares of space and defense firm Voyager Technologies Inc. ended their debut session up 82% after more than doubling at one point during early trading. Circle’s 168% first-day gain on June 5 following its IPO also demonstrated investors’ rekindled enthusiasm for first-time share sales.
