Legence, a provider of engineering and maintenance services backed by Blackstone, made its Nasdaq debut on Friday with a market valuation of $2.75 billion, after shares fell 3.6% from the IPO price. The company opened at $27 per share, below the initial offering price of $28, raising $728 million by selling 26 million shares within the marketed range of $25 to $29.
The offering comes amid one of the busiest post-Labor Day IPO periods in recent years, with analysts noting that market momentum could rival the record-breaking activity seen during the 2021 IPO boom. However, standout first-day performances have primarily been driven by venture capital-backed companies, rather than private equity-owned firms like Legence.
“Given that private-equity deals are capital-structure transactions with no proceeds going to the firm, it’s much more a buyer’s market for those deals. We also typically don’t expect these deals to perform strongly initially,” said Josef Schuster, CEO of IPOX. Jeff Zell, senior research analyst at IPO Boutique, echoed the caution, noting that “Legence comes with significant debt, and recent history shows investors have pushed back on similar private equity-backed deals after lackluster debuts from SailPoint, NIQ, and McGraw Hill.”
Blackstone acquired Legence from private-equity firm Gemspring Capital in 2020 and has been actively pursuing public listings for its portfolio companies. The firm, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, has indicated that it aims to execute the busiest slate of IPOs since 2021, signaling a strategic push to bring more of its investments to public markets.
Legence specializes in designing and installing heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and energy-efficiency systems. Its services cater to technically complex, high-growth sectors, including life sciences and data centers, positioning the company in markets where demand for sophisticated building solutions is expanding rapidly.
Despite the muted debut, analysts suggest the IPO reflects growing interest in infrastructure-related and technically demanding engineering services, even if private equity-backed offerings face additional scrutiny from investors on the first day of trading. The company’s performance will be closely watched as part of Blackstone’s broader strategy to monetize its portfolio while capitalizing on the ongoing IPO surge.
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