By Arasu Kannagi Basil and Atharva Singh
June 11 (Reuters) – Forbright, the bank founded by former U.S. Representative John Delaney, was valued at $870 million after its shares fell 2.8% in their Nasdaq debut on Thursday, as markets brace for SpaceX’s blockbuster listing.
Maryland-based Forbright shares opened at $17.50 apiece, below the offer price of $18. It raised $142 million in the IPO by selling 7.9 million shares at the low end of the marketed range of $18 to $20 each.
June is off to a busy start for the IPO market as a slew of issuers rushed to list ahead of SpaceX’s imminent blockbuster listing to avoid competing for investor attention.
Investors appear to have overlooked Forbright “with all the focus on SpaceX,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs, adding that overlooked deals can sometimes be winners in the long run.
“In terms of deal heat, bank IPOs are not the sexiest debuts either,” added Kennedy.
Forbright traces its history to Congressional Bank, established in 2003 as a community bank serving the Washington D.C. area. Its platform now spans middle-market lending, digital consumer banking, strategic advisory and asset management.
Delaney, Forbright’s CEO, served three terms representing Maryland in the U.S. House before leaving Congress in 2019 to pursue an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
Forbright’s growth accelerated after Delaney returned to the private sector. He led a $369 million equity infusion in 2021 from investors including Centerbridge Partners, Gallatin Point Capital and Bayview Asset Management.
Delaney previously founded and led two New York-listed companies — HealthCare Financial Partners and CapitalSource.
“The growth story is what sells the deal. That and the involvement from Delaney and institutional backers,” Kennedy said.
(Reporting by Atharva Singh and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Vijay Kishore)
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