>>> Oatly Prices IPO at Top of Range to Raise $1.4 Billion
Yahoo Finance
by Crystal Tse
May 19, 2021
(Bloomberg) -- Oatly Group AB, the vegan food and drink maker, priced its initial public offering at the top of a marketed range to raise more than $1.4 billion.
The company and its investors sold more than 84 million American depositary shares for $17 each on Wednesday, according to a statement. The Swedish company had offered the shares for $15 to $17 each.
The listing gives Oatly a market value of about $10 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
U.S. markets dropped for the third day in a row, with the S&P 500 index falling 0.3% Wednesday.
The IPO underscores plant-based products’ jump into the mainstream, as environmental and health concerns spur consumers to seek alternatives to traditional meat and dairy products. Investors have been looking for ways to replicate the public-market success of Beyond Meat Inc., whose shares have surged more than 300% since it went public in May 2019.
Oatly was started in 1994 by brothers Rickard and Bjorn Oste. Using technology based on research from Sweden’s Lund University, the company turns fiber-rich oats into liquid food.
In July, Oatly secured $200 million in new capital from investors led by Blackstone Group Inc. The group also included celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z, as well as former Starbucks Corp. founder Howard Schultz. The company was valued at about $2 billion in the round.
Oatly’s offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Credit Suisse Group AG. The shares are expected to begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol OTLY.
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