Lightspeed stock is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today.
Approval from the NYSE came Thursday, just one day after the Montréal-based e-commerce company announced that it had filed to list on the United States exchange. This was followed by Lightspeed announcing late Thursday that it had priced its subordinate voting shares at $30.50 USD per share.
Lightspeed is set to be listed on the NYSE under the same symbol LSPD, which it also uses for the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
The company stated that its underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, Barclays and BMO Capital, along with eight other US banks, agreed to purchase an aggregate of 10 million subordinate voting shares from Lightspeed and 1.65 million from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, with Lightspeed pulling in proceeds of $305 million USD and Caisse receiving $50.32 million USD.
The underwriters also have the right to purchase an additional 1.74 million shares from a group of Lightspeed executives, including CEO Dax Dasilva, for a period of 30 days after the offering closes (September 15).
Lightspeed joins a handful of Canadian tech companies that have dual listings in Canada and the United States, including BlackBerry, Shopify, Mogo, and Open Text.
When Lightspeed announced its filing for the NYSE initial public offering, it stated that the net proceeds will be used primarily to strengthen its financial position and allow it to “pursue its growth strategies.”
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The decision to pursue the dual public listing follows an interesting year for Lightspeed, which sells its software to small businesses.
While the startup reported strong year-over-year growth in fiscal first-quarter 2021, which ended June 30, 2020, it also faced flat revenue and customer growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its filings, the Montréal company noted that the COVID-19 pandemic “is adversely affecting and is expected to continue to adversely affect” its business. Lightspeed cited a challenging economic environment for small businesses, notably retail and hospitality customers.
Founded by Dasilva in 2005, Lightspeed develops cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce software for small businesses. Its software is designed to help retailers, restaurants, and e-commerce merchants build and manage their businesses. Of late, the company has been expanding from its POS roots. Earlier this year it teamed up with global payments platform Stripe launch of its own payments product, later announcing a new loan offering for small- to medium-sized businesses.