Listing of OpenAI competitor, Unilever and the Rivian trial: What's important about the IPO by Oct. 26

OpenAI's competitor Cohere, in which Nvidia has invested, intends to launch an IPO in the US soon. Unilever, one of the world's largest FMCG producers, faces the risk of postponing the planned November IPO of its ice cream business due to the US shutdown. American electric car manufacturer Rivian will pay $250 million to shareholders accusing it of fraud in the initial public offering. The main events on the IPO market during the week are in our selection.

- Startup Cohere, an OpenAI competitor with investment from Nvidia, hopes to go public "soon", CEO Aidan Gomez said. The debut could be one of the first IPOs of AI model developers. "I think investors in the public market will be interested in investing directly in an AI developer rather than investing indirectly through hyperscalers," Gomez said. Cohere was founded in 2019 and develops business-oriented big language models and tools based on them. The startup was valued at $7 billion in September 2025.

- Princes Group, maker of canned tuna and a subsidiary of Italy's NewPrinces, has announced a London IPO price range below market expectations. The company said it plans to raise up to £400 million by selling shares at between £4.75 and £5.9. This equates to a capitalization range of between £1.16 billion and £1.24 billion, while Financial Times sources were expecting £1.5 billion. After the range was announced, quotes for the parent company in Milan fell more than 19%.

- Chinese memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a rival of Samsung and SK Hynix, is aiming for an IPO in Shanghai in the first quarter of 2026 for up to 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion), Reuters sources claim. They said the company expects a capitalization of 300 billion yuan ($42.1 billion). CXMT's IPO plans come amid a surge in Chinese semiconductor stocks: the benchmark CSI CN semiconductor index has risen 49% since the start of 2025, Reuters notes.

- Shares in Germany's Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), the largest maker of non-nuclear submarines, rose 35% in debut trading after its IPO. TKMS shares peaked at €106.58 per share - 78% above its starting price of €60 per share - after opening trading in Frankfurt, but then corrected. The rally in TKMS shares is due to "general mania for defense stocks," said MWB Research analyst Jens-Peter Rieck. He gave TKMS shares a Buy rating and a target price of €100.

- Unilever has postponed the spin-off of Magnum Ice Cream Company (it includes Magnum and Ben & Jerry's ice cream brands), citing delays in listing due to the U.S. shutdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the company, the U.S. regulator was unable to declare the registration statement effective - which is a condition for the start of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company did not give a new date, promising to complete the spin-off by the end of 2025. Unilever had previously planned to list Magnum shares on the Amsterdam, London and New York stock exchanges on Nov. 10. Unilever intended to retain control of a 20% stake in Magnum for five years, but eventually wanted to sell that stake as well.

- Dubai-based Dubizzle, owner of classifieds sites popular with expats in the Middle East and North Africa, postponed its IPO a day before the bookbuild. It's a rare occurrence in a region where companies have raised about $50 billion in offerings since 2022, Bloomberg notes. Dubizzle was looking to float a 30% stake on the Dubai exchange. According to Bloomberg, the market value of the company could be about $2 billion.

- US electric car maker Rivian will pay $250m to shareholders to settle an IPO fraud lawsuit. Investors alleged that Rivian defrauded them by underpricing its electric vehicles during the IPO period. Rivian's stock plummeted 39% in the 10 days after the company raised the price of its electric cars by 18-21% on March 1, 2022, sparking widespread customer dissatisfaction.

- Investment giant Blackstone intends to accelerate the listing of portfolio companies to take advantage of increased activity in the capital markets, the WSJ writes. "If our IPO plans are realized, next year will be one of the largest offerings in our history," said Stephen Schwartzman, head of the investment company, reporting on the results for the third quarter. According to Schwarzman, falling interest rates and booming stock markets are opening a window for Blackstone to take profits, including through IPOs.

- The Middle East has become one of the most active regions for IPOs in recent years, but until recently it was dominated by state-owned and family-owned businesses. Now investment bankers see a new opportunity: listings of companies owned by private equity funds, Bloomberg reported. "While the number of private equity-owned companies here is still smaller than in more mature markets, activity has clearly picked up," the agency quoted Nikita Turkin, equity capital markets specialist at Barclays, as saying. Emirates NBD Capital head Hitesh Asarpota has held preliminary talks with funds on listings in food, retail, healthcare and services, but does not expect a wave of large IPOs with their participation in the next year-and-a-half.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor