The Portland metro hasn’t had a technology initial public offering in 14 years, but nLight Inc. CEO Scott Keeney did not let that pressure get to him.
Keeney’s company started trading today, breaking the more than decade-long tech IPO drought, on the Nasdaq exchange. It trades under the ticker LASR. The company priced its shares at $16, higher than originally planned: The stock popped more than 60 percent on its first day of trading.
It closed at about $27, or nearly 70 percent above its opening $16 price.
“There was no pressure, but I do hope we serve as an example,” he said. “I certainly hope to help other companies and any advice that I can give. For companies that it’s appropriate to go public, I do hope there are (more) in our region.”
nLight makes high-performance lasers used in industrial, microfabrication, aerospace and defense markets. It serves 300-plus customers, including industrial giants Samsung, Suzhou Quick Laser Technology Co., BAE Systems and Raytheon Co.
Last year, the company generated $138.6 million in sales, up from $101.3 million a year earlier, and turned a profit for the first time. Its $1.8 million in earnings comes just a year after posting a $14.2 million loss.
It’s the strong performance and the growing scale of the company that made the timing right for an IPO milestone, Keeney said. That timing had more to do with where the company was than the broader market.
The last several years have seen a stark slow down nationwide in the number of IPOs, and many tech companies that have had venture capital and private equity pouring into them have stayed private longer. The market has also been cool to offerings.
This year, that seems to be changing.
Even this week, the market bore heavy swings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed down on Tuesday wiping out April gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was off more than 1 percent.
Today the Dow and the S&P were both up 1 percent while the Nasdaq rose 1.6 percent.
Keeney said the company wasn’t able to time the market, but for the business the time was right.
“We believe that investors do have a much better understanding of our space than they did in the past,” he said. “That was validated on the roadshow.”
Over the past couple weeks, Keeney spoke with 300 investors.
“It was super intense and surprising rewarding,” he said. “Rewarding because the investors, the vast majority were thoughtful investors. That is satisfying as thinking of these people as stewards of other people’s money.”
The offering was oversubscribed, so the company boosted the number of shares offered. Initially it said it would offer 5.4 million shares in the IPO. Wednesday night, that number was boosted to 6 million shares. The company also upped its offer price to $16, from a range of $13 to $15.
The $96 million raised will increase the company's capitalization, Keeney said. And it will be business as usual for the team moving forward.
“We will continue to do what we have done in the past — develop new products that continue to drive the technology,” he said.
From the outset, the 18-year-old company has had its sights on going public since the core technology had a broad range of market.
“It was always the vision,” he said. “It’s hard to anticipate and there is no path on what that looks like.”
The Portland Business Journal is a KGW News partner.
