Astana goes Wall Street… Kazakhstani super app Kaspi.kz had the biggest IPO since Birkenstock, raising $1B and notching a $17.5B market cap at its Nasdaq debut. It’s the third-largest company to go public since 2020, behind chip designer Arm and J&J spinoff Kenvue. Still, Kaspi shares debuted last week at just 0.5% above their IPO price and have fallen since.
All in one: The fintech giant is Kazakhstan’s take on the “super app,” similar to China’s WeChat and Indonesia’s Gojek. It serves both consumers and merchants, with services like banking, BNPL lending, online grocery shopping, and tax filing.
Fun facts: Kaspi, only the second company from Kazakhstan to debut on a major US exchange, said it has 13.5M customers and notched $2.7M in revenue last year. It previously went public on three other stock exchanges, including London’s.
Initial public apathy?… US stock indexes notched record highs yesterday, but investors don’t seem as bullish on IPOs after two years of sluggish activity. FYI: last year only 154 companies IPO’d on US exchanges, a 15% drop from 2022 and an 85% plunge from 2021’s record of 1K+. With interest rates expected to drop this year, investors are looking for signs that the new listing market will revive, though recent debuts like Birkenstock have been lackluster.
Even “risk on” investors need a nudge… Record-high stock prices, fueled by a tech rally, suggest the market is accepting more risk. Still, to get the IPO market humming, experts think big names need to start listing. And rumors abound of anticipated IPOs that would fit that bill (think: Shein is said to be targeting up to a $90B valuation). But if those companies end up stumbling out of the gate, it could pump the brakes on other would-be listers’ plans.