The Lund research-based oat milk brand has floated in a $1.43bn IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market after pricing shares at $17.
Oatly, a Sweden-founded oat milk maker leveraging the research conducted at Lund University, has listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in a $1.43bn initial public offering.
The company issued almost 84.4 million American Depositary Shares – representing the same number of ordinary stock – priced at $17 apiece. It is trading under the symbol OTLY and shares are trading at $22.46 at the time of publication.
Oatly was founded in 1994 to advance research at Lund University into producing oat milk. It also makes other oats-derived food products traditionally made from cow’s milk including ice cream, coffee, yoghurt, cream, spread and custard.
The company had most recently raised $200m in a July 2020 round led by investment management firm Blackstone, featuring talent agency Roc Nation and Rabo Corporate Investments, a corporate venturing arm of agriculture-focused banking services group Rabobank.
Oatly co-founders Rickard and Björn Öste, growth equity firm Orkila Capital and various individuals filled out the round.
Unnamed investors put up $41m for Oatly in 2019, which came three years after conglomerate China Resources, Verlinvest and Strand Equity provided an undisclosed sum. Oyster Bay Venture Capital was also among its investors.
Oatly’s largest shareholder is Nativus, a joint venture of China Resources and Verlinvest (47.5% post-IPO) while Blackstone’s BXG Redhawk vehicle now owns 6.7% and the two co-founders’ Öste Ventures unit retains 4.4%.
Nativus sold 15.5 million shares in the offering, while Öste Ventures sold some 338,000 shares.
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Securities, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Barclays Capital, Jefferies, BNP Paribas Securities, BofA Securities, Piper Sandler & Co, RBC Capital Markets, Rabo Securities USA, William Blair & Company, Guggenheim Securities, Truist Securities, China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities, Nordea Bank Abp, filial i Sverige, Oppenheimer & Co, SEB Securities, Blaylock Van, CL King & Associates, Loop Capital Markets, Samuel A Ramirez & Company, Siebert Williams Shank & Co and Tribal Capital Markets are serving as underwriters.
They have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 12.6 million shares, which could push gross proceeds to nearly $1.65bn.
– Feature image courtesy of Oatly