Endeavor Group Holdings, the Hollywood entertainment and talent company, climbed by 5 percent in its trading debut after raising US$511 million in a U.S. initial public offering.
The shares, which sold for US$24 each in the IPO and jumped by 19 percent Thursday, closed at US$25.20.
The successful offering delivers a movie-style redemption ending for Endeavor and its leader, the veteran mogul Ari Emanuel, after an earlier attempt to go public was scuttled in 2019.
“The bottom fell out of the market, you had the WeWork debacle back then, and we weren’t getting the economics we deserved,” Emanuel said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
He said Endeavor is well positioned as the entertainment industry comes back to life after coronavirus pandemic shutdowns.
“We touch all the areas of where the world is going right now,” Emanuel said of the company’s streaming, arts, fashion, sports and music offerings.
Endeavor also is raising US$1.8 billion from institutional investors in a private placement of shares, according the company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors participating in the placement include KKR & Co., Coatue Management, Elliott Investment Management and Endeavor’s longtime backer Silver Lake, the company said in filings.
