[1]On the day before it was set to go public, loanDepot Inc [2]., announced it would delay its initial public offering amid volatile market conditions.
According to a statement [3] filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission [4] on Tuesday, the lender was planning to offer 26.4 million shares of its common stock on Friday, valued at $16 to $18 per share. The move was expected to raise $475 million for the company, which was to be valued at $2.6 billion.
According to NASDAQ, [5] the company planned to offer as many as 30 million shares.
But on Thursday, the company announced that it will postpone the biggest IPO of the week, due to rough conditions in the market. Conditions, have, of course, been stormy on Wall Street to say the least. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 254.15 points, or nearly 1.5 percent. Over the preceding week, it has dropped a total of 2.3 percent.
LoanDepot was founded in the darkest days of the recession in 2010, billing itself as an antidote to big banks that disrupted the home loan market. It has grown into the second-largest non-bank lender in a field that now claims 40 percent of the mortgage market.
The IPO, for which the company filed in October, was well-anticipated, but given the recent underwhelming performances of IPOs among financial-technology companies, perhaps it is unsurprising that the lender reacted to recent stock market news with cold feet.
CEO and Chairman Anthony Hsieh, however, was considerably more optimistic a month ago, when the IPO-to-come was announced. “Our vision is to deliver a diversified lending model sustainable in all market conditions,” he said then. “We look forward to leading the development of marketplace lending through the introduction of new products and services that provide credit solutions for borrowers with attractive returns for investors.”
Somewhat ironically, the Dow Jones industrial Average was higher when loanDepot pulled the IPO than it was during the week it announced it would be going public.
LoanDepot has not said when it will make a new IPO, nor whether it will offer the same shares or per-share values.