Oh, what a ride! The newly listed Trump-endorsed media company Newsmax [NYSE:NMAX] is causing investors whiplash as it surged over 2,600% in its first trading session only to drop down to a sixth of its peak value by the second day.
The share price seems to have been caught up in a bit of Trumpuphoria rallying from its initial price of $10 to a high of $279.99. By the time the first wave of enthusiasm fizzled out it had dropped to $52.52. But even the current price seems fairly optimistic for a company that made a loss of $70 million last year on $171 million of revenue.
Newsmax makes most of its money from advertising as it broadcasts to a prime-time audience of around 300,000 people. It is the fourth-largest US cable news provider by audience, but not a serious contender against the much larger Fox News [NasdaqGS:FOXA] which broadcasts to over 3 million people. Even with all its media might and political influence in the US, Fox News’ P/E ratio is relatively low at around 11.4. This is significantly below the average P/E ratio of S&P 500 companies of around 26 to 29. Meanwhile the current price puts Newsmax’s P/E ratio at over 50.
Sizzle, sizzle, fizzle?
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Aspargo Labs: an interesting contender in the small pharma space
Aspargo Labs, a company working on an oral spray alternative to Viagra, will be an interesting contender in the small pharma space when it lists later this spring.
The listing price has not been made public yet, but the company sold its shares privately last year at $0.87 a share. When it lists, the freefloat is expected to be around 176 million shares.
Aspargo Labs focuses on turning medication traditionally delivered in the form of pills into an easier-to-digest and faster-acting version using oral sprays. Its most promising product is the above-mentioned spray formulation for sildenafil, the medication sold under the brand name Viagra, which it claims acts within five minutes.
Its product has passed Phase 1 studies, and Aspargo is pursuing a new drug application which could potentially see it become the first FDA-approved oral spray for erectile dysfunction.
The risk with Aspargo, like with many biotechs and pharma startups, is timing and whether it can bring out the product to the market fast enough to start making up the cost of R&D. With a successful listing it would receive the shot of money it needs to create a product that has the potential to fly off the shelves not only in the US, but also in other markets where the company has applied for regulatory approval including Japan, the Middle East and South America.
Chime Financial: mobile banking provider has 22m US customers
Klarna is not the only interesting fintech IPO to hit the market this spring. An even bigger financial player due to list this year is US neobank Chime Financial. The mobile banking provider was last valued at $25 billion in 2021 after securing $750 million in a Series G funding round led by Sequoia Capital. Since then, it worked hard to attract more customers and expanded with the acquisition of another fintech, New York-based employee rewards start-up Salt Labs.
Chime has built up a customer base of more than 22 million users in the US, offering cashback rewards, high-yield savings accounts, and Visa-powered credit and debit cards. Laying the ground for the planned listing it has also started offering above-average yields to customers paying their wages into Chime savings or current accounts. The company has made $1.5 billion in annual revenue and its investors include Forerunner Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Sequoia, SoftBank and Tiger Global.
Chime Financial is a very steady operator that has persistently managed to expand its offerings and if priced correctly it could be a very attractive play.
