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Polish E-Commerce Platform Allegro Surges 63% On Stock Market Debut

Polish E-Commerce Platform Allegro Surges 63% On Stock Market Debut

Allegr
ALGR
o, Poland’s top e-commerce platform—and rival to Amazon
AMZN
—floated in spectacular fashion today, with shares ending the day 62.8% above their opening price of Polish Zloty 43 ($11.40).

The surge pushed the value of the company up from an implied opening market capitalization of $11.7 billion to just over $19 billion—indicating just how eager both institutional and retail investors are for online stocks during the Covid-19 pandemic, as high demand for e-commerce services continues.

In the case of Allegro, its strong market position in Poland makes it an attractive proposition. In its September analysis, SimilarWeb ranks the allegro.pl site fourth in the country behind the .com sites of Internet giants Google
GOOG
, YouTube and Facebook. Interestingly, Allegro moved ahead of google.pl last month, pushing the latter down to fifth. Meanwhile at the global level, SimilarWeb ranks Allegro 14th in the world for e-commerce and shopping.

Allegro processed an average of 32 million monthly transactions in the 12 months to June by connecting more than 12.3 million active buyers with over 117,000 merchants.

Those merchants use the group’s online marketplace to sell products across very varied categories including electronics, home and garden; sports and leisure; kids; automotive; fashion and shoes; health and beauty; books, media, collectibles and art; and supermarket goods.

According to Allegro, its marketplace platform attracts the equivalent of 63% of Polish residents aged 16 and above, and 76% of all Internet users in Poland, the European Union’s fifth most populous country with just over 38 million inhabitants.

Will online’s share of retail sales stall?

The retail market in Poland had seen continuous and rapid growth from 2013 to 2019,

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Polish Online Retailer Allegro Surges 63% in Market Debut

Polish Online Retailer Allegro Surges 63% in Market Debut

(Bloomberg) —

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Poland’s newest stock listing was a roaring success on its first day of trading, taking over as the biggest stock on the country’s main exchange and adding almost two-thirds in market value.

Allegro.eu SA shares jumped 63% to close at 70 zloty in its first trading session in Warsaw on Monday, lifting the company’s value to 72 billion zloty ($19 billion). The firm and its private-equity investors priced the IPO at the top end of a marketed range, cashing in on soaring demand for digital sales as consumers stuck at home indulge in virtual retail therapy.

“Allegro provides high exposure to the fast-growing Polish e-commerce market and draws comparison to Amazon, which may be an attractive investment option for foreign investors, who took up most of the shares in offering,” Jaroslaw Niedzielewski, head of investments for Investors TFI mutual fund, said in an email. “But the scale of the price jump is a shock.”



chart: Valuation Game

© Bloomberg
Valuation Game

Before the trading start, analysts at Bernstein estimated Allegro’s enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be about 37, above the likes of Amazon.com Inc and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, but below MercadoLibre Inc. and European fashion retailer Zalando SE, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Trading volume on Allegro shares reached about 4 billion zloty, a record daily volume for single stock in Warsaw. It stood for almost 80% of total equity traded value on the exchange on Monday.

“Wide gains are a combination of a general surge in tech stocks this year and emerging markets e-commerce opportunity, which long-term is a good place to be,” Bernstein analyst Aneesha Sherman said in email. Even so, “such a move may soften after as there are several question marks about growth and margins.”

The company

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Shattuck Labs Surges in Market Debut Amid Flurry of IPOs

Shattuck Labs Surges in Market Debut Amid Flurry of IPOs

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Shares of

Shattuck Labs

soared nearly 35% as a flurry of biotechs and a Chinese edutainment company went public on Friday.

Shattuck’s stock opened at $22.10 and hit a high of $22.90. The stock recently changed hands at $18.95, up 11.47%.

The solid debut comes after Shattuck Labs (ticker: STTK) increased the size of its deal on Thursday, according to a statement. The biotech company ended up raising $202 million by selling 11.9 million at $17 each, up from the 10 million shares at $14 to $16 it had planned to sell. Underwriters on the deal include Citigroup, Cowen, and Evercore ISI.

Founded in 2016, Shattuck is developing therapies to target cancer and inflammatory diseases. Its lead drug candidate, SL-172154, is in a Phase 1 clinical trial with patients suffering from ovarian cancer.

Like many biotech companies, Shattuck is unprofitable. The company reported nearly $12.8 million in losses for the six months ended June 30 on $6.2 million in collaboration revenue. This compares with $9.3 million in losses for the same period in 2019 on $5.3 million in collaboration revenue, a prospectus said. It employs 50 employees.

Shares of

Spruce Biosciences

(SPRB) rose nearly 23% in their first day of trading Friday. The stock jumped to a high of $18.40 after opening at $18.14. Shares recently traded at $16.19, up nearly 8%.

Spruce Biosciences also increased the size of its deal. On Thursday, the biotech company raised $90 million after selling 6 million shares at $15 each, up from 5 million shares at $14 to $16 each. Cowen, SVB Leerink, Credit Suisse, and RBC Capital Markets are underwriters on the deal.

Spruce is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing drug candidates to treat rare endocrine disorders. Its product candidate, tildacerfont, treats classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or CAH, and

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