The bankers priced Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ: VIR) at $20 a share for its IPO on Friday. There was no demand for the name.
The stock opened at $16.20 a share and proceeded to drop to $14.02 a share by the end of the day. It was almost a 30% loss for early investors. Prior to the IPO, Arch Venture Partners owned 27% of the company's shares, and Softbank (OTC: SFTBY) owned 21.2%. What made it even more alarming was that the stock market was up overall, with the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, the Dow, and the Russell all gaining more than 1% for the day.
What happened?