Georgia Homebuilder Launches What Could Be 2024’s First U.S. IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Smith Douglas Homes Corp. launched plans to raise as much as $161.5 million in an initial public offering that could be the first US listing of 2024.

With dozens of potential IPO candidates watching closely for a sign of a listings rebound, Smith Douglas Homes said in a filing Wednesday that it plans to sell almost 7.7 million shares for $18 to $21 each. 

The filing follows one of the worst years for listings of the past decade, with only $26 billion raised on US exchanges, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That was up slightly from 2022 but less than a twelfth of the record-setting $339 billion raised in 2021, the data show.

Listings are pending for more than 170 companies that have filed for IPOs in the past year. The plans of many would-be public companies stalled after a quartet of prominent offerings led by semiconductor designer Arm Holdings Plc in September failed to deliver the results sought by investors.

BrightSpring Health Services Inc., backed by KKR & Co., submitted its initial public filing on Tuesday, another sign of the market potentially warming. The home and community-based health-care services provider, which won't disclose proposed terms for the IPO until a later filing, was planning to seek to raise $1 billion in an IPO, Bloomberg News reported in September.

Smith Douglas Homes, based in Woodstock, Georgia, had home-closing revenue of almost $595 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, according to its filing. The company's founding family will continue to control it after the IPO.

The offering is being led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo & Co. The company plans for its shares to trade under the symbol SDHC.

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