Lawyer Monthly - August 2021 Edition

WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | AUG 2021 74 The investment scene continues to tick along in Q3, and we are seeing some significant moves being played. - Perhaps the most notable event of the month has been the announcement of Robinhood’s long-awaited IPO. The US trading app that became the centre of the “meme stock” buzz earlier this year is hoping to float on the New York stock market with a valuation of up to $35 billion. As the company continues to build investor hype through the announcement of a crypto wallet and other new features, Wall Street has braced for volatility to come. It has yet to be seen whether recent revelations that US watchdogs are probing the possibility of inside trading of meme stocks by Robinhood employees will do anything to dampen enthusiasm. Elsewhere, the IPO landscape continues to flourish internationally. Germany’s LR Health & Beauty is reported to be targeting a Q4 flotation to take advantage of high equity valuations, and could be valued at more than €500 million in a potential IPO. Language learning app Duolingo has also hit the stock market, offering 3.7 million shares of Class A common stock at $102 per share – a substantial increase from its initially set range of $85 to $95 per share. However, worries have emerged regarding Hong Kong’s ordinarily buzzing IPO pipeline and the likelihood of its tailing off around the second half of 2021 amid Chinese regulatory crackdowns. China has taken aim at a number of fast-growing private firms in the $120 billion private tutoring sector and elsewhere, with giants such as Alibaba, Ant Group and ride-hailing group Didi all having been hit. Uncertainty over the government’s moves is expected to make investors more selective in the deals they choose to buy into, according to dealmakers quoted by Reuters. The past week has also seen Aon and Willis Towers Watson call off a proposed $30 billion merger that would have created the world’s largest insurance broker, claiming that objections by US regulators having created unacceptable delay and uncertainty. US Attorney General Merrick Garland hailed the deal’s termination as “a victory” against monopolisation. What’s Happening in theWorld of M&As and IPOs?