IPO Wrap: Kardashian IPO rumours swirl; and August set to be a busy month for new ASX listings

Recent listing on Nasdaq signals potential comeback for IPOs
Could Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand be the next big IPO?
We take a look at the upcoming IPOs on the ASX

Is a Kardashian IPO coming soon?

The Nasdaq listing of Oddity Tech last week offered a glimpse of the pent-up demand for more IPO stocks.

Oddity closed the day 40% higher than its IPO price, giving the Israel-based company a market cap of around US$2.8bn.

The beauty and wellness products company had raised US$424m in the IPO round, and said it wants to disrupt the traditional in-store experience with artificial intelligence to develop brands and make product recommendations.

In another emerging sign the IPO market is making a rebound, there are rumours surrounding a potential listing of Kim Kardashian’s clothing brand, Skims.

Skims was founded in 2019 by Kim Kardashian, Emma Grede and Jens Grede – who have since built it into a US$4bn company following the latest round of funding and valuation.

Skims recently engaged Wellington Management, a firm known for taking companies public, and hired a chief financial officer, Andy Muir, who previously worked at Nike.

Bringing a new CFO on board is often a sign that an IPO could be on the cards.

Skims’ CEO Jens Grede had also previously stated that “at some point in the future, Skims deserves to be a public company”.

IPO news back home

Back home, employees of Virgin Australia said they wanted shares and better working conditions in the airlines’ upcoming IPO.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) have submitted to Virgin’s owners including Bain Capital a list of five demands, including awarding $1000 worth of stock to the company’s 7000 staff.

“Bain stands to gain hundreds of millions from an upcoming IPO, it is only right that hardworking staff are rewarded for their efforts through a reasonable employee share scheme, the likes of which are common in Australia,” TWU national secretary Michael Kaine told the AFR.

Meanwhile, the ASX had reportedly knocked back the listing submission of blockchain focused company, Distributed Storage Solutions (DSS).

Sydney-based DSS is Australia’s largest provider of storage services for Filecoin – a decentralized cloud storage network developed on the IPFS protocol.

According to a report from the AFR, the ASX rejected DSS’s application because it had concerns about DSS’ crypto-related activities, citing lack of regulatory guidance from ASIC.

The ASX had previously kicked out a crypto related company, Animoca Brands, which has since moved its base to Hong Kong.

How ASX IPO listings in 2023 are faring

Code	Name	IPO Price	Current Price	Return	Market cap	Listing date
LM1	Leeuwin Metals	$0.25	$0.41	64.00%	$18.36m	29/03/2023
DYM	Dynamic Metals	$0.20	$0.27	32.50%	$9.28m	16/01/2023
EG1	Evergreen Lithium	$0.25	$0.32	28.00%	$17.99m	11/04/2023
AUG	Augustus Minerals	$0.20	$0.25	25.00%	$20.16m	25/05/2023
NGX	NGX	$0.20	$0.22	10.00%	$19.93m	16/06/2023
ILT	Iltani Resources	$0.20	$0.21	5.00%	$8.78m	30/06/2023
ACM	Aust. Critical Minerals	$0.20	$0.21	2.50%	$6.09m	03/07/2023
DY6	Dy6 Metals	$0.20	$0.20	0.00%	$7.71m	29/06/2023
PL3	Patagonia Lithium	$0.20	$0.19	-5.00%	$9.31m	31/03/2023
HTM	High-Tech Metals	$0.20	$0.19	-5.00%	$4.69m	23/01/2023
RDX	Redox	$2.55	$2.25	-11.80%	$1.18b	03/07/2023
CHW	Chilwa Minerals	$0.20	$0.18	-12.50%	$8.03m	05/07/2023
ACE	Acusensus	$4.00	$3.17	-20.80%	$79.98m	12/01/2023
GHY	Gold Hydrogen	$0.50	$0.31	-38.00%	$17.65m	13/01/2023
SQX	SQX Resources	$0.20	$0.11	-45.00%	$2.75m	20/02/2023
VHM	VHM	$1.35	$0.61	-54.80%	$93.46m	09/01/2023
ADC	Acdc Metals	$0.20	$0.08	-59.50%	$3.79m	17/01/2023

Leeuwin Metals (ASX:LM1) has been the best performing ASX IPO so far this year, with a gain of over 60% on the listing price.

Leewin explores critical metals vital for the advancement of electric vehicles and renewable energy, and has projects located in Canada and Western Australia which are highly prospective for nickel, copper, PGEs and lithium.

Dynamic Metals (ASX:DYM) has also hauled in 30%+ returns for early investors.

Dynamic has recently commenced lithium exploration work at Pioneer Dome West (PDW), part of the larger Widgiemooltha project in WA.

Meanwhile Evergreen Lithium (ASX:EG1) has climbed by 28% since listing.

Evergreen’s flagship Bynoe lithium project is adjacent to Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) and its producing Finniss mine in the Northern Territory.

Upcoming ASX IPO listings

All dates are sourced from the ASX website. They could change without notice.

Abacus Storage King (ASX:ASK)

Expected listing: August 1
IPO: $225m at $1.41

Abacus is a pure play fully integrated owner of the Storage King operating platform, Australasia’s largest self storage company, with locations throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The company is the leading expert in residential and business storage, and has a huge network of storage locations across the country. It also sells boxes and packing materials.

Underwriters for the IPO include Barrenjoey, Morgan Stanley, and Shaw and Partners.

Dragonfly Biosciences (ASX:DRF)

Expected listing: August 1
IPO: $5m at $0.20

Dragonfly is a cannabis based company popular in the UK for selling CBD-based everyday products such as toothpaste, suncare, balms and moisturisers.

The company sells to major UK shops Boots, Tesco and Sainsbury, and now sees Australia and the Asian market as potential huge markets for its products.

In the consumable category, Dragonfly has already received special access scheme approval for two of its products from the TGA.

Once the TGA approval is obtained, Dragonfly expects the Asian market to see it as a fully accredited brand, which would enable the company access to those markets.

Dragonfly sees itself as a health and wellness business, which is differentiated from the more capital intensive medicinal cannabis segment.

NOW READ: IPO Watch: UK-leading cannabis health and wellness house Dragonfly Biosciences set to list on ASX

Mining Green Metals (ASX:MG1)

Expected listing: August 21
IPO: $5m at $0.20

This explorer has a suite of green metal projects (either owned or optioned) including lithium, PGEs, nickel, vanadium and uranium in the attractive mining jurisdiction of Western Australia.

The Coats PGE, nickel, copper and vanadium project is 20km SSE of Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) Julimar project.

MG1’s Lake Johnston lithium and nickel project is also close to Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) and SQM’s Mount Holland Lithium Mine, and the historic Maggie Hays/Emily Ann Nickel deposits held by Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS).

Cleo Diagnostics (ASX:COV)

Expected listing: August 11
IPO: $5m at $0.20

Cleo is a medical diagnostics and devices development company.

The company’s product makes early diagnosis of ovarian cancer a reality with a simple and accurate blood test.

Its flagship is the CleoDX platform, a test kit designed to detect a novel protein biomaker CXCL10 in the blood which is present very early and through all stages of ovarian cancer.

After blood is collected, risk evaluation is performed and an assessment is made by Cleo’s proprietary algorithm.

Ashby Mining (ASX:AMG)

Expected listing: August 16
IPO: $15m at $0.20

AMG is developing a gold production business in the Charters Towers region in Northern Queensland and has secured rights to a land package covering over 600km2 containing historical mines, mineral resources, highly prospective exploration potential and a gold processing plant.

The 340Ktpa Blackjack Processing Plant is a conventional Carbon in Pulp (CIP) plant, located 15 minutes from Charters Towers.

The Far Fanning gold project lies on a permitted Mining Lease with historical production of 47,200oz gold from 664,000t of ore at average 2.2g/t gold.