CEO and chairman of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) David Solomon has defended the investment bank's hand in the underwriting of WeWork's failed IPO, stating "I'm not sure that we got it so wrong...There were things that were right, there we things that were wrong," during a panel valuing 'unicorns' at Davos on Tuesday.
"The banks weren't valuing. The way the process of an IPO works when you're a bank is you're invited in by a company, it's a private company, their numbers aren't public, they give you a model. You say to the company: well, if you can prove to us that the model actually does what this does, then it's possible it could be worth this in the public markets...[private companies are] not held to the same standard [as public companies] around producing information...and that's an issue."
The bank revealed back in October that the failed IPO and write-down had cost the bank upwards of $80 million.
Recently Priced IPOs:
I-Mab Biopharma (NASDAQ: IMAB) issued on the global Nasdaq last week, setting its share price at $14. The Chinese biotechnology company raised an offering of $127,777,650 with 7,407,400 shares. I-Mab finished its first day down 11%.
Lizhi Inc. (NASDAQ: LIZI) also debuted on the global select Nasdaq with and offering of $45.1 million raised by 4.1 million shares priced at $11 a piece. The Chinese podcasting and audio content app is the first of its major competitors, Ximalaya and Dragonfly, to go public. Lizhi finished its first day up 6%.
Phoenix Tree Holdings LTD (NYSE: DNK) priced last week with an offering of $129,600,000 from 9.6 million shares set at $13.50 per share. The Chinese rental platform is one of the top three of its kind in China, but traded flat in its first day and is pushing lower in current markets.
Velocity Financial, LLC (NYSE: VEL) also entered the U.S. public trading markets last week, with the real estate finance company setting its initial share price to $13. The company had an offering of $94,250,000 from 7.25 million shares. Velocity plans to use proceeds from the offering to repay a portion of the company's outstanding corporate debt and use the remainder for general purposes. Velocity closed up 4% on its first day.
There are no companies scheduled to go public this week due to the U.S. holiday.