Record listing since the 20th century and Ekman's roadshow: what's important about IPOs by April 19

Investment guru Bill Ackman has set a late April IPO pricing date for his Pershing Square fund. Madison Air Solutions shares jumped 18% after the largest U.S. industrial IPO in nearly 30 years. The Warsaw exchange is ready to work with competitors in Eastern and Central Europe to keep local companies from floating in the West. The main IPO market events of the week are in our selection.

- Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has launched a road show for the U.S. IPO of his hedge fund Pershing Square, despite the Iran crisis, which is hitting the optimism of market participants. According to documents seen by Bloomberg, Pershing Square USA is scheduled for April 28, and the volume of shares on the New York Stock Exchange could reach $10 billion. The billionaire has been preparing its entry into the stock exchange since at least 2024. After the IPO, Eckman himself , investment director Ryan Israel and other top managers will control Pershing Square through an investment company. A distinctive feature of Ackman's fund is a concentrated portfolio with large positions in just a few stocks, including Uber and Alphabet.

- Belron , a global leader in auto glass repair, is planning an IPO in Amsterdam that could be one of the largest in Europe in recent years. The company's owners considered listing in New York, but preferred the Dutch venue, sources told the Financial Times. According to them, the business, led by former AB InBev head Carlos Brito, should be valued at between €30 billion and €40 billion. A controlling stake in Belron belongs to Belgium's D'Ieteren Group. Among the shareholders are investment giant BlackRock and Gary Labner, the main sponsor of the UK Labor Party.

- EagleRock Land, the owner of hydrocarbon acreage in the Permian Basin, has filed for a rare US oil and gas IPO. Listings in the US oil industry have been rare until recently due to the environmental agenda in the stock market. The company earns money from leasing its fields and royalties from production. Chevron and ConocoPhillips, as well as Devon Energy and Diamondback Energy, are drilling on its lands. According to Reuters, EagleRock decided to go public amid a spike in oil prices due to the Middle East conflict, which has increased demand for U.S. assets untouched by the war. It will try to replicate the success of LandBridge, whose shares have tripled in price since it floated in 2024.

- Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, has decided to hold an IPO of his oil refinery, which is the largest on the continent. The billionaire plans to place about 10% of the company's shares on several stock exchanges. The funds will be used to finance a five-year investment program of $40 billion to expand the refinery and create new production facilities. The 650,000-barrel (about 85,000 tons) per day refinery reached full capacity just a couple of weeks before the Iranian war began. Now this refinery covers growing demand in Africa and is becoming an increasingly important supplier of scarce jet fuel to Europe, Bloomberg points out.

- The manufacturer of ventilation and filtration systems Madison Air Solutions ended its first day on the stock exchange with an 18% increase in quotations. The raised $2.23 billion made the placement the largest IPO of an industrial company on Wall Street since 1999. The company placed shares on the New York Stock Exchange at $27 per piece - the upper limit of the announced range. The company's capitalization at the end of the debut trading reached $15.5 billion. Madison Air manages more than 30 brands, and the commercial segment brings it two-thirds of revenue. Investors see the company as a way to capitalize on the AI boom, which has been pushing up the U.S. stock market for three years.

- Shares of aerospace and defense component supplier Arxis jumped 38% on the day it debuted on Nasdaq following its IPO. The company raised $1.1 billion on the exchange by selling an increased package of securities at the upper limit of $28 per unit. According to Bloomberg calculations, the first trading day provided the issuer with a market value of $15.7 billion. The defense and space sector is a key sector for Arxis: in 2025 it brought the company 47% of revenue, and commercial aviation - another 23%.

- Kailera Therapeutics, a startup developing obesity drugs, has had the largest listing in the US biotech sector since 2021. Kailera is founded in 2024 and is now in the final phase of clinical trials for GLP-1-based injections and pills for weight loss. The would-be competitor to Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk raised $625 million in an IPO that was oversubscribed due to strong demand. The offering took place on Nasdaq at the upper end of the price range: investors bought 39 million shares at $16 apiece, giving the issuer a market valuation of about $2 billion. According to Bloomberg, the order book for the purchase of securities was oversubscribed more than 10 times.

- The management of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the largest in Eastern Europe, has called on regional peers to cooperate to stop the outflow of issuers to the West. The exchange intends to work with rivals in Budapest and Bucharest to improve settlement and ease regulation. CEO Tomasz Bardzilowski told Bloomberg, "We especially want companies planning IPOs to choose to cross-list on several Central and Eastern European exchanges, including Warsaw, instead of leaving the region." Right now, the region is missing out on issuers: Czech CSG and Colt CZ chose Amsterdam, while Ukraine's Swarmer and Kyivstar chose New York.

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