Good evening,

It was post-mortem time for Chrysos at the weekend, as the company, its investors, bankers and the like tried to work out how its shares tanked on debut and what they could do to turn it around.

Consensus was that three things led to the horror 36.2 per cent fall: market conditions, pre-IPO investors that were happy to sell at any price and the float’s timing.

Those three things meant that when the bell rang at 11.30am on Friday, sellers were lined up at the exit, but there were few buyers.

The end result was the worst performance for a $100 million-plus IPO in our memory. Dealogic’s record books suggest a bunch of floats in the heady pre-crisis days fared worse, although each listed with future instalment payments that explained their big share price drops.

While Chrysos has a long road to try to get back to $6.50 a share, it was a black eye for Australia’s IPO market at a time when sentiment was already weak.

Clearly, a few things need to change to make sure the next IPO off the rank doesn’t also dust 36.2 per cent on listing. Investors are already talking to bankers about pre-IPO investor lock-ups or trading mechanisms and market risk during the prospectus period.

Elsewhere, we look at a new building products process out of New Zealand, and think about where APA Group could find its electricity sector buy.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors