Deepseek competitor goes public, record in U.S. market: highlights of the IPO by June 22

MiniMax, a Chinese competitor of DeepSeek, has begun preparations to list in Hong Kong. Spanish casino chain Cirsa has decided to raise up to 460 million euros in its first IPO this year in Madrid. Shares in cancer diagnostics developer Caris Life Sciences and Miami-based home insurer Slide Insurance soared after listing in the US. The main events on the IPO market during the week are in our selection.

- Chinese AI startup MiniMax, which competes with Deepseek, has hired financial advisers to prepare for an IPO and could go public in Hong Kong as early as 2025, confirmed Bloomberg sources. MiniMax's listing could be a landmark event for China's AI sector, as it will give investors a chance to invest in a new generation of Chinese AI companies, interest in which has been fueled by the recent hype surrounding chatbot Deepseek, the agency noted. MiniMax raised $600 million from a pool of investors led by Alibaba based on a $2.5 billion valuation for its business in 2024. This week, the startup presented a reasoning model called M1, which it claims outperforms DeepSeek's latest development in terms of size and efficiency.

- Blackstone-owned casino chain Cirsa plans an IPO of up to €460 million in Spain in 2025. Cirsa operates casinos and gaming platforms in Spain, Latin America, Morocco and Italy, and entered the markets of Portugal and Puerto Rico in 2024. Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Deutsche Bank are acting as organizers of the offering. Cirsa's offering could be the first IPO in Madrid since November 2024, when Spanish water and clean energy company Cox went public, notes Reuters.

- LG Electronics is considering going back to organizing an IPO of its Indian unit. According to word Bloomberg sources, the listing could take place as early as September. The LG Electronics India offering was expected to raise up to $1.7 billion, which would have made it one of the largest in the Indian market. But in April, preparations for the IPO were put on hold due to market volatility. In addition, investors expressed dissatisfaction with the valuation offered by the parent company, confirmed Bloomberg's interlocutors.

- India's HDB Financial Services, a subsidiary of the country's largest private bank, HDFC Bank, is looking to raise $1.5 billion in India's biggest IPO in 2025. The company has set the price range for the offering at 700-740 rupees per share ($8.06-8.52). The listing will take place at the end of June. As of May 2025, LSEG said IPOs in India were down 5% year-on-year and the number of deals fell 31%.

- Insurance group FWD could launch a $500 million IPO in Hong Kong as early as next week, Reuters sources confirm. The company is controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, son of Hong Kong's richest man Li Kashin. This attempt to go public is the third for FWD. Initially, the company intended to hold an IPO in New York in 2021 and to raise from $2 billion to $3 billion. However, the plans had to be abandoned because of problems with the U.S. authorities - FWD was considered by them as a Chinese company rather than a Hong Kong company. FWD switched to organizing an IPO in Hong Kong in 2022, but then postponed it due to the unstable situation in global financial markets.

- Shares of cancer diagnostics developer Caris Life Sciences soared 33% in debut trading in New York. The company's shares closed at $28 at an offering price of $21 apiece. Caris placed $494 million worth of shares in its IPO. Due to strong investor demand, the company increased its price range to $19-20 per share from an initial target of $16-18.

- Shares of Slide Insurance, which specializes in home insurance in hurricane-prone Florida, jumped 19% on its debut day of trading on Nasdaq. The company listed at the top end of its price range ($15 to $17 per share) and raised $408 million, the largest insurance company IPO in the U.S. in 2025. In May, Aspen Insurance, in which Apollo invested, raised $397.5 million in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. In the words of IPOX vice president Kat Liu, the stable cash flows and profitability of the insurance business make insurance companies attractive candidates for listing despite volatile markets this year.

- Shares of Saudi low-cost carrier Flynas fell in debut trading on the Riyadh bourse. This is most likely due to pressure on the quotes of Middle Eastern air carriers due to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, wrote Bloomberg. The airline's stock ended its first session down 3.4%, fluctuating between sharp declines and gains throughout the day. Trading was suspended twice in the first 20 minutes due to high volatility. Flynas shares were placed at 80 riyals ($21.3) per share - the upper limit of the announced price range, which gave the company a valuation of $3.65 bln. With the volume of the placement at $1.1 bln, the amount of applications for participation in the IPO exceeded $100 bln.

- The number of companies whose shares are doubling in value on the first day of trading after a U.S. IPO is growing at a record pace since 2021, Bloomberg calculated. Since the beginning of the year, three companies that raised at least $50 million managed to double their value on the day of their stock exchange debut: cable TV channel Newsmax, stablecoin issuer Circle and drone maker Airo Group. In 2021, nine companies achieved a similar result amid the IPO boom. But history shows that extreme jumps on the day of an offering rarely yield long-term returns for investors. According to University of Florida professor Jay Ritter, between 1980 and 2023, there were 316 IPOs on U.S. exchanges whose shares doubled in price on the first day of trading (excluding offerings priced below $5 a share, depositary receipts and exchange-traded units). Nearly 90% of these IPOs posted negative three-year buy-and-hold returns relative to the closing price on the day of debut.