Preliminary trading in shares of NIQ Global Intelligence has begun on the Freedom client trading system. The securities of the global market leader in consumer analytics, known as NielsenIQ, are available under the ticker symbol NIQ. They will appear on the New York Stock Exchange later Wednesday. 

Details

NIQ Global Intelligence raised $1.05 billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. The company offered 50 million shares at $21 a share with a price target of $20-24. That brought its capitalization to $6.2 billion, counted by Bloomberg.

The IPO was organized by JPMorgan, Bank of America, UBS, Barclays and RBC. The shares will be traded under the ticker NIQ.

What's interesting about the company

NIQ is a former division of Nielsen Holdings specializing in consumer behavior analysis. In 2021, it was bought by private equity fund Advent International along with former TransUnion head Jim Peck for $2.7 billion and later renamed. Peck now heads the company. Other investors include KKR and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Solutions (NIM);

NIQ's new owners have revamped the team, invested about $400 million in technology, acquired rival GfK and made eight other deals worth $520 million in M&A, said the company's IPO filing. In the first quarter of 2025, NIQ reduced its net loss by 2.4 times year-over-year (to $73.7 million) on revenue growth of 0.4% (to $966 million).

NIQ collects data from a variety of sources, from retailers' POS terminals and proprietary consumer dashboards to partnerships with e-commerce platforms and loyalty programs. The company actively uses artificial intelligence to automate data processing, and its technology partners include Microsoft and Snowflake. NIQ's analytics covers about 85% of global consumer spending and targets large customers, among them Amazon, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Walmart and Sony. With some, the platform has been partnering for more than 70 years, noted analyst firm Kalkine Equities. 

What analysts say about the stock

NIQ's offering offers investors an attractive entry point into the global consumer analytics market: the company generates stable revenue, works with large customers and is incorporating AI into products, accounts U.K. broker EBC Financial Group. The midpoint of NIQ's reported price range ($22 a share) valued the company at 1.6 times its annual revenue, a typical valuation for consumer analytics players, confirms EBC.

If NIQ is valued at the industry average, the company's value, including debt and cash on the balance sheet, corresponds to a stock valuation of $25.62 per share - 22% above the offering price, Freedom Broker analyst Alem Bektemirov said. He cited the loss of key customers (in 2024, the 10 largest customers accounted for almost a fifth of all revenue), high competition and possible technical failures as the main risks to the platform's business;

Context

Wall Street's attention in the IPO market is usually focused on startups. Trading in shares of NIQ Global Intelligence, however, as well as digital education content provider McGraw Hill, which is set to go public on Thursday, July 24, will test investor interest in mature companies with long histories and billions of dollars in annual revenue, emphasizes MarketWatch. 

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Freedom clients will be able to trade NIQ Global Intelligence shares before the opening of the main exchange session. Trading will begin in the early pre-market format 2-3 hours before the opening of the US exchanges (from 15:30-16:30 Astana time). To participate, click on ticker NIQ.US

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

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