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Bridget Carter

Spire Global, Air Tasker and Fiscal Note lining up for 2021 listings

Bridget Carter
The pipeline for major groups heading to the boards could prove even stronger next year. Picture: Hollie Adams
The pipeline for major groups heading to the boards could prove even stronger next year. Picture: Hollie Adams

The sharemarket has provided booming conditions for some companies hoping to list this year, but the pipeline for major groups heading to the boards could prove even stronger next year.

DataRoom understands that investment bank Macquarie Capital is embarking on early work for a number of high-profile floats in the technology sector for next year.

Among them is the listing of Luxembourg and US-based satellite company Spire Global, which is expected to be worth at least $500m. The company is embarking on a pre-IPO funding round later this week ahead of its 2021 listing plans.

Others include Air Tasker and Fiscal Note.

Spire Global is a space-to-cloud data and analytics company that specialises in the tracking of global data sets powered by a large constellation of nano satellites. It operates in the areas of weather, aviation, earth information, maritime and orbital services.

The business, originally known as NanoSatisfi, was founded in 2012 in San Francisco by International Space University graduates Peter Platzer, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark.

Air Tasker is a Sydney-based company that provides an online and mobile marketplace enabling users to outsource everyday tasks.

The business was founded in 2012 by entrepreneurs Tim Fung and Jonathan Lui and has raised $3.5m to date.

The company purchased rival TaskBox in 2013 and Melbourne-based Occasional Butler in 2014, and it has also partnered with jobs listing website CareerOne.

In 2013, it raised a further $2m.

Some suspect that the company could be worth about $300m once listed and it will be closely watching the performance of trade services hipages, which is heading to the boards as a $318.5m company next week.

Meanwhile, Fiscal Note is a privately held software, data and media company based in Washington DC.

The business was founded by Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao and Jonathan Chen in 2013.

Fiscal Note provides software tools and platforms, data services and news and the Government Relationship Management service, its core revenue-generating product. The business expanded into Australia and New Zealand in 2017.

In mining services, Bis Industries will be watching DDH1 closely as the diamond drilling company makes efforts to lock in its IPO for this year.

Owner Oaktree Capital Management had been hoping to achieve a price of six times the company’s annual earnings and is thought to be contemplating a cornerstone process for its float.

The thinking is that should Oaktree lower its price expectations, there would be enough demand to lock in an IPO deal.

Bis Industries was previously owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and was recapitalised by private equity funds including Varde Partners and The Carlyle Group in 2016. Now would be the right time frame for it to be looking at an exit, subject to market conditions.

There is talk in the market that management has been instructed to prepare the company so it is match fit for an IPO next year.

Bis is a leading provider of logistic support solutions, such as road trains and pit haulage, to the resources sector, and was earmarked for an ASX listing in 2013 worth $1.5bn.

But the deal was shelved because potential investors baulked at the size of the debt and the mining services sector was out of favour with investors.

Much of whether an IPO can happen next year will also depend on commodity prices, which have been soaring, with coal being the exception.

In terms of deals coming to the market in the coming days, the outcome of the US election is expected to prove critical.

After the result, software business Nuix and the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal are expected to offer price indications for IPOs.

An uncertain result out of the US could result in the companies deferring listing plans subject to more market stability.

Bridget Carter
Bridget CarterDataRoom Editor

Bridget Carter has worked as a writer and editor for The Australian’s DataRoom column since it was launched in 2013, focusing on capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investment banking. She has been a journalist for more than 18 years, covering a broad range of events and topics, including high profile court cases and crimes, natural disasters, social issues and company news.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/dataroom/spire-global-air-tasker-and-fiscal-note-lining-up-for-2021-listings/news-story/335c20cfdd8edee255276125e2a6f42e