On Wednesday shares of Palantir Technologies began to be traded on the NYSE through the direct listing procedure. The company was valued at $20.6 billion, however, over the 17 years of existence never reported a profit. Palantir called the pandemic coronavirus “fair wind” and gave predictions of high revenue growth.
Wednesday Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR), the American company software to analyze large amounts of data, went public on the new York stock exchange (NYSE) and was priced at $20.6 billion, which roughly corresponds to its evaluation in a round of private fundraising in 2015.
Palantir has a reputation of secret of the company, which worked with the Central intelligence Agency and other government agencies of the United States. According to reports, the company helped to find Osama bin Laden and helped in the search for terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today the range of clients the software platform Palantir is composed not only of the defense Agency and US intelligence, but also a number of international banks, companies in the healthcare, energy and manufacturing.
“Many of the most important institutions in the world rely on software platforms that we have created,” said CEO of Palantir Alex Karp.
Palantir joined the list of the few public companies that have conducted direct listing instead of the traditional IPO, which means that the company has not issued new shares, and allowed existing shareholders to sell shares to new investors through the stock exchange.
“We had very patient investors – especially our most important employees, and this immediately gives them greater access to the market,” said chief operating officer of Palantir Shyam Sankara.
On the first day of trading, shares Palantir reached a day high of $11,42, but closed at a price of $9,50 per share. This is below the initial price the company at $10, but exceeds the price in the $7.25, set by the NYSE on Tuesday, which was founded on the basis of the latest auction on the private market
Palantir has announced his decision to go public in mid-2019 and planned to complete the listing in the second half of 2021, but the pandemic COVID-19, according to Sankara, “has accelerated the development of the business” and plans to enter the public market.
Company Palantir was founded in 2008 by billionaire and ally of President Donald trump, Peter Thiel, who was one of the first investors of Facebook (FB) and co-founder of PayPal (PYPL), the other two co-founders: Stephen Cohen and Alex Karp.
As a result of the listing Palantir was established three classes of shares. The share structure ensures that control of the company remains in the hands of til, Karp, and Cohen.
Over its 17 years of existence, Palantir reported no net profit. According to filed with the Commission on securities and exchange Commission (SEC) documents, the company’s revenues grew to $742,6 million in 2019 from $595,4 million in 2018, and losses remained at the level of more than half a billion dollars per year: $to 579.6 million in 2019 and $580 million in 2018.
For the first six months of this year, Palantir has recorded a loss of $164,7 million on revenue of $481,2 million, better than net loss of $280,5 million on revenue of $322,7 million for the same period of 2019.
The company also gave a forecast for revenue growth: third-quarter from 46% to 47%; for the full 2020: from 41% to 43% and 30% in 2021.
Wednesday direct listing also had another software company called Asana Inc. (ASAH), its stock rose 37% to $28,8 the close of trading. Analysts on wall Street point to the high increase in the number of listings among software companies that is because their business is growing because of the transition of many people for remote work and learning. The third quarter of 2020 (July to September) was the busiest by number of listings since the dotcom boom.
