Vendor placement for Patriot, record PayPay listing: what's important about IPOs by March 8

Payment service PayPay will hold the largest listing in the history of Japanese companies in the USA. German Vincorion, a supplier of parts for Patriot anti-aircraft systems (used, among other things, in the operation against Iran), began preparations for listing in Frankfurt. The exceptional cost of SpaceX shares at the IPO will be justified for long-term investors willing to put up with the unpredictability of Elon Musk for several years, according to PitchBook. The main events on the IPO market for the week - in our selection.

- The leader of the Japanese market of QR-payments PayPay and its shareholder SoftBank have approved the parameters of IPO on Nasdaq with the volume of up to $1.1 billion. The listing should become the largest for companies from Japan in the USA. The payment service itself will offer investors 31.1 million shares, and SoftBank's Vision Fund II will sell another 23.9 million securities. The stated range from $17 to $20 per share suggests a maximum valuation of the business at $13.4 billion - while SoftBank founder Masaesi Son insisted on $20 billion, Bloomberg writes. According to the agency's interlocutors, PayPay postponed the bookbuild because of the conflict in the Middle East, but now intends to decide on the offering price on March 11.

- German defense company Vincorion, which supplies power systems for Patriot anti-aircraft systems used to repel Iranian attacks, has planned an IPO in Frankfurt. Vincorion also makes parts for Rheinmetall's Puma infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard 2 tanks. Anchor investors represented by Fidelity, Invesco and T. Rowe Price have confirmed their willingness to buy shares for about €105 million. During the four years of the military conflict in Ukraine, the company has increased sales by almost 70%, from €145 million in 2021 to €240 million by the end of 2025.

- China's Momenta Technology, which is developing robotaxis with General Motors, has confidentially filed for an IPO in Hong Kong, Bloomberg sources report. The startup could raise at least $1 billion and is already meeting with investors to gauge interest in the offering, they said. Founded in 2016 by Microsoft exits, the company was valued at more than $5 billion in 2025 and its investors include Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Tencent and Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital fund. Momenta is also partnering with Uber. The startup tried to launch an IPO in the US in 2024, but eventually abandoned the idea.

- Diabetes monitoring device maker MiniMed, owned by one of the world's largest medical device suppliers Medtronic, raised $560 million in an IPO on Nasdaq, offering its shares at a price well below its target. MiniMed sold 28 million shares at $20 apiece, though it initially offered them to investors at $25 to $28. According to Bloomberg, MiniMed's initial valuation of its business sparked controversy among analysts, although it still looked cheaper than comparable companies such as Dexcom, Insulet and Tandem Diabetes Care on a multiple of forecast adjusted EBITDA.

- Online travel agent Loveholidays is preparing to postpone its IPO in London because of the chaos in the travel industry since the Iran crisis began, sources told the Financial Times. The company had planned to announce a listing with a business valuation of up to £1 billion in early March. But the service has now outlined going public after the Easter holidays, the FT writes. "The desire for an IPO in London remains strong, but there have been discussions about whether now is the right time given the massive sell-off in the shares of sector rivals," an insider explained to the publication. In the first week of March, shares of Loveholidays' rival On The Beach lost a little over 2% in London, while the shares of tour operator Tui fell by almost 10%. Quotes of European airlines IAG, Lufthansa, Ryanair and EasyJet also fell due to the cancelation of thousands of flights to the Gulf countries.

- Geopolitical conflicts, including the war in Iran, are unlikely to completely stop issuers from entering U.S. public markets, according to Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). "If you have a good company, you can always go public," she said at the Bloomberg Invest conference. At the same time, the head of the largest U.S. stock exchange pointed to the need to assess risks. "I think companies need to be attentive to how events in the geopolitical arena can affect their business in the short and medium term," - said Martin.

- The $1.75 trillion valuation that Elon Musk's SpaceX seeks at its IPO will be justified if investors are willing to look at the company with a three- to five-year horizon and tolerate the high volatility associated with Musk himself, warns PitchBook analyst Franco Granda (quoted by Bloomberg). According to his calculations, at such capitalization, the P/E multiple (the ratio of the market value of the share to the annual profit of the company received per share) for SpaceX will exceed 100 - against 77 at Palantir, the most expensive by this indicator member of the S&P 500. For his valuation, the analyst focused on the so-called "sum-of-the-parts" principle, which uses growth-adjusted multiples of the fastest-growing publicly traded competitors of Starlink's satellite service and SpaceX's space launch business, and the calculations do not take into account SpaceX's recent acquisition of startup xAI.

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