What’s hot, what’s not – Stockhead’s yearbook of ASX debutants for 2017

From cannabis for pets to infant milk formula, ASX debutants make quite the class for 2017.

Overall there have been 93 IPOs on the market to November 30, not including reverse takeovers or re-listings.

On the most part, they have performed quite well – if all participants were equally weighted, average performance would be around 82 per cent.

But, don’t let that fool you – IPO performance was almost equally mixed. Just over 52 per cent of the IPOs ended above their issue price over the period.

Top of the pops

1. Cann Group (CAN) 900 per cent
2. Alderan (AL8) 830 per cent
3. Wattle Health (WHA) 785 per cent
4. Ardea (ARD) 695 per cent
5. Bubs (BUB) 665 per cent

Starting with the top five success stories for the year and you can’t go past the in-vogue thematic of medicinal cannabis.

Huge leaps and bounds have been made at home and abroad in the medicinal cannabis space and debutant Cann Group have been able to capitalise on the excitement in the market.

The company (ASX:CAN) listed in May, after raising $13.5 million at an issue price of 30c.

But by December the company had risen to more than $3 and a market cap in excess of $254 million.

At the time of compilation, the stock was the biggest winner for the year, up 900 per cent in just 8 months.

Battery metals also had their time in the sun this year, taking two of the top 5 spots for IPO triumphs.

USA copper explorer Alderan (ASX:AL8) was up 830 per cent for the year and Australia cobalt play Ardea (ASX:ARL) up 695 per cent after both issued at 20c.

Rounding out the top 5 was two China-focussed infant milk powder exporters – Wattle Health (ASX: WHA) and Bubs (ASX:BUB).

The demand for clean, green Australian products to China has spurred Wattle’s stock price up to 785 per cent of its listing price of 20c while goat milk maker Bubs took out 5^th spot with 665 per cent from 10c.

But what goes up… must come down

93. Servtech Global (SVT) -90 per cent
94. United Networks (UNL) -65 per cent
95. JiaJiafu Modern (JJF)  -62 per cent
96. Velocity Property (VP7) -62 per cent
97. Freehill Mining (FHS) -60 per cent

A lot has been said about the IPOs that have performed well and how much money has been made, but FinTwits tend to be very quiet on what has not worked.

Despite what they may say, it has not been all cupcakes and rainbows in the IPO space with a number that have been disappointing for investors.

The gong for worst performance goes to ServTech (ASX:SVT) who debuted at a listing price of 20c with lofty goals to revolutionise the way businesses manage transactions.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and at the time of writing the stock was suspended to respond to an ASX aware query.

In a similar vein, digital consumer engagement ecosystem United Networks (ASX:UNL) flopped 65 per cent, last trading at 6.4c.

But the rest of the top five was a mixed bag – a potato farmer in JJF, property developer in VP7 and Chilean magnetite sand miner in FHS.

Sectors of growth

More broadly across the 93 listings you can see the enthusiasm for electric cars by the number of cobalt and lithium miners.

Tech had the next largest number of IPOs with 11 coming to market, but it was the food and beverage sector that was the best performing sector due to the robust performance of the milk formula exporters.

IPO performance has been dispersed across a wide range of sectors but it’s the top 10 IPOs that have made the largest contribution to the performance of them all. If you did not get the top 10 stocks, you’re likely not celebrating quite as hard this year.

For canny investors that avoided the tail (this has been very difficult to do) a lot of money would have been made but at the end of the day, how much of this could be attributed to investment skill versus dumb luck is anyone’s guess.

Check out the full list of 2017’s IPOs.