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Wall Street bankers and broker-dealers are notorious for climbing over walls to win over whales in advance of the ultimate monetization event. In the case of Uber, the biggest Unicorn of them all, with a private market valuation of more than $50billion, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and other major investment banks have launched a pre-IPO lobbying campaign by banning the ubiquitous line-up of black car services esconsed outside  their palatial Wall Street homes, and instead, they are offering their brokers special compensation to embrace the use of Uber so as to win over the senior executives who will decide on this decade’s potentially biggest initial public offering mandate for investment bankers.

In a July 10  NYT story by Nathaniel Popper, which has been re-purposed by tens of dozens of media outlets, we give credit where credit is due and share the following excerpt from Popper’s column:

“..The latest reminder came this week when JPMorgan Chase announced that it would reimburse all of its employees for rides taken with Uber — offering access to “Uber’s expanding presence and seamless experience,” the company said in a news release.

JPMorgan made its decision long after other parts of corporate America were already hailing cars through the California start-up. But banks have recently shown a fondness for the service — with Goldman making the company part of its official travel policy in late May and Morgan Stanley putting out its own news release about its Uber use late last year.

Bank experts were quick to note that these moves come as the banks are jockeying to win a coveted spot managing Uber’s initial public offering — one that is not yet scheduled but that is assumed to be coming in the not-too-distant future. The I.P.O. for Uber, whose fund-raising so far has pegged its valuation at $50 billion, will most likely be the blockbuster I.P.O. in whatever year it takes place.

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A spokeswoman for JPMorgan said that the Uber news release this week had nothing to do with an I.P.O. and was instead part of the bank’s broader business relationship with the company. It does, though, fit squarely within a hallowed tradition of banks going to sometimes amusing lengths to secure a prized initial offering and the significant fees and reputational lift that it can provide.

“On the margin, sometimes the little incremental thing will make the difference,” said Lise Buyer, who advises start-ups looking at initial offerings. “Anything that a bank can do on the margin to improve their odds will probably be useful.”

The softer side of the sales pitch has taken on many forms over the years. When Amazon.com was going public, Ms. Buyer said that banks presented their pitch books to the company in the form of bound books, to celebrate Amazon’s book-selling roots. Other bankers have made humorous videos about the company they were proposing to bring to the stock market.

One of the most storied practitioners of the hard and soft sell of potential clients was the JPMorgan banker Jimmy Lee, who died unexpectedly last month.

Mr. Lee placed a G.M. car in the lobby of JPMorgan’s headquarters on Park Avenue when General Motors executives came in to consider whether to use the bank for the carmaker’s return to the public markets after the financial crisis. (JPMorgan participated.)

A few years later, Mr. Lee was in a custom-made Facebook hoodie — a sharp departure from his normal pinstripe suit — when Mark Zuckerberg visited JPMorgan before his company’s initial offering. (The bank took part in that one, too.)

These sorts of efforts have a well-grounded logic for the companies shopping for a bank. A banker taking a company public has to sell the shares of the company to investors — and thus needs to show an understanding of what the company does.

For the full story at the NY Times, click here

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Planet Fitness Inc. filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $100 million. With its filing, Planet Fitness, a low-cost gym chain, aims to become a publicly traded company in two months or so.

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Founded in its current form in 1992, the company was a pioneer in opening low-cost gyms meant to be friendlier to the average consumer rather than catering to hard-core fitness enthusiasts.Such was the company’s success that it eventually drew in as a partner the private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, a specialist in consumer brands.

Last year, Planet Fitness reported $37.3 million in profit on $279.8 million in revenue, both up from a year earlier. In the prospectus, Planet Fitness listed a preliminary $100 million fund-raising target, a figure meant to determine listing fees.

It will eventually trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PLNT.

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Red Star Macalline Group Corp priced its IPO in Hong Kong at the top of the range on June 19, raising HK$7.22bn ($931.34m) for the furniture retailer-cum-shopping mall owner that has been dubbed China’s answer to Ikea.

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The offering continues Hong Kong’s strong run as an IPO venue thanks to a stock-market boom. So far this year, Hong Kong ranks second globally as a venue for IPOs by value, behind Shanghai and ahead of New York, according to data from Dealogic.

The company secured US$330 million in orders from cornerstone investors, who agreed to buy and hold the shares for six months, including New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital, household appliances maker Gree Electric Appliances Inc., Shandong state-owned Asset Investment Holdings, China National Building Material and hedge fund BosValen Asset Management. It is scheduled to begin trading in Hong Kong on June 26.

If Legend’s listing takes place, it would be the year’s third-largest in Hong Kong after a US$4.5 billion listing by Chinese brokerage firm HTSC, better known as Huatai Securities, in May, and a US$4.1 billion IPO by GF Securities Co. in March.

To read the full article, click here. 

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Europcar said it hoped to price its shares between €11.50 and €15 and to begin unrestricted trading on the Euronext exchange on June 26. The company announced in May that it was seeking permission from regulators to pursue an I.P.O.

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Europcar expects to sell shares to institutional investors internationally and in France, and to retail investors in France. If there is sufficient interest, a minimum of 10 percent of the offering will be sold to retail investors, it said.

Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA are among the banks managing the IPO.

To find out more, read this Bloomberg article. 

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To contact a brokerdealer to help you get in on this freaky fast IPO, click here.

Jimmy John’s Franchise LLC is preparing for an initial public offering that could value the popular U.S. gourmet sandwich chain at more than $2 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jimmy John’s, which is owned by founder Jimmy John Liautaud as well as private equity firm Weston Presidio, is interviewing investment banks to serve as underwriters for an IPO that could come later this year, three people said.

Jimmy John’s has annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of roughly $150 million, the people added.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Representatives of Jimmy John’s and Weston Presidio did not respond to requests for comment.

To continue reading about Jimmy John’s likely IPO happening later this year, click here.

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China National Nuclear Power Corp., one of the top two state nuclear-power giants, will raise as much as $2.16 billion in what is set to be the country’s largest domestic initial public offering in five years.

CNNPC plans to sell up to 3.89 billion new shares, or a quarter of its total, in the sale, according to its IPO prospectus, filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday. The offering’s expected launch date is June 2.

The share float is poised to be the largest in the domestic market since China Everbright Bank Co. raised $2.6 billion in Shanghai in August 2010, according to data provided by Dealogic.

China National Nuclear Group holds a 97% stake in CNNPC. About 40% of China’s total nuclear energy is generated by operators controlled by CNNPC. Excluding issuance-related fees, the firm will raise 13.4 billion yuan ($2.16 billion), according to the prospectus. CNNPC will allocate 4.18 billion yuan of the raised capital to replenish its holdings of cash, and will invest the rest in the construction of projects in Fujian, Zhejiang, Hainan and Jiangsu provinces. Citic Securities, UBS AG and China Securities are the underwriters for the deal.

To continue reading about this explosive new IPO about to hit the markets, click here.

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Let’s go to the video, Spotify’s chief exec says.

The world’s biggest audio music streamer, with 60 million active users, said Wednesday it decided to broaden its offering, in part to capitalize on Americans’ long commutes, Spotify’s CEO told The Post in a private interview.

“A lot of Americans are sitting in their cars for a long time,” explained CEO Daniel Ek, who was in New York to announce at a press conference a slew of new business initiatives with the help of Tiësto, D’Angelo and Questlove.

“Tens of millions had connected to Spotify via Bluetooth but they still didn’t play music their entire drive,” said Ek, adding that heavy Spotify users wanted news, weather, traffic and podcasts, too, so he approached content providers about what they could offer.

The streaming music giant wants to expand its user base in advance of a much-hyped IPO, looking to take on the likes of Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook with a collection of video clips.

To continue reading about the changes in services for Spotify as they could soon launch an IPO, click here.

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AppFolio Inc, a maker of online property management software, filed with U.S. regulators on Monday for an initial public offering of common stock.

Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Pacific Crest Securities and William Blair are underwriters to the IPO.

The California-based company, whose investors include BV Capital and IGSB, provides software to small and medium-sized property managers and also offers legal software for small law firms under the brand “MyCase”.

AppFolio’s revenue rose 61 percent to $15.8 million for the quarter ended March 31. Net loss widened to $3.6 million from $1.2 million a year earlier.

To read more on the AppFolio IPO filing, click here.

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To get in on the IPO action yourself, find a brokerdealer to work with you and your needs. 

Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) is the leading provider of automated solutions for mortgage servicing and originations. Spun out of Fidelity National Finance (NYSE: FNF), Black Knight’s platform is used by the top 25 US mortgage servicers and 23 of the 25 largest US mortgage originators. The company’s dominant market position only encourages more customers to use its platform to mitigate mortgage risk.

Shopify (SHOP) is this week’s high-growth IPO. Backed by Bessemer, First Mark and Insight Venture Partners, the company has more than doubled revenue in each of the last 2 years, and sales rose 109% in the 1Q15. The SaaS provider targets 10 million small and medium businesses trying to manage online stores. 

Baozun (BZUN) is the leading provider of brand e-commerce solutions in China with a 20% market share. Backed by Alibaba (BABA), Goldman Sachs and others, it operates in the $4 billion outsourced Chinese e-commerce solutions industry, which is expected to grow at about a 55% CAGR through 2017. It has attracted blue-chip customers like Nike and Microsoft while rapidly growing transaction volumes on its platform. However, investors should be conscious of Baozun’s relatively high customer concentration current lack of positive free cash flow.

Press Ganey (PGND) operates in the nearly-$4 billion market for improving patient satisfaction at health care organizations. LBO’d by Vestar Capital Partners in 2008 for a reported $675 million, the company benefits from incentives under the Affordable Care Act that drive health care to become more consumer-focused. Press Ganey has established itself as the market leader in surveying patients, but also pitches its ability to leverage patient data into an analytics platform that recommends hospital best practices.

Community Healthcare Trust (CHCT) is a newly-formed REIT targeting an initial portfolio of 35 health care-focused properties, including non-urban clinics and surgery centers. Aside from its relatively high initial yield of 7.5%, investors may be betting that CEO Timothy Wallace will leverage his public company experience as former co-founder and EVP of Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE: HR).

To read Renaissance Capital’s complete coverage on this week’s IPO, click here

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