Lime opens at $27 a share; IPO happened at the 'right moment,' CEO says

Electric scooter and e-bike institution Lime (LIME) opened astatine $27 a stock connected Wednesday, a time aft pricing its archetypal nationalist offering (IPO) astatine $25 per share.

Trading nether the ticker LIME, the institution priced its IPO Tuesday nighttime astatine the midpoint of its marketed scope of $24 to $26. The institution sold 6,956,522 shares, raising astir $167 cardinal from the sale. 

"I would accidental it's the close infinitesimal due to the fact that we person been gathering this concern and the past 3 years we've been escaped currency travel positive, [and] we proceed to turn our apical line, precise steadfast 29% apical enactment maturation successful 2025," Lime CEO Wayne Ting said to Yahoo Finance. "Now that we are astatine fiscal sustainability to pat the nationalist markets to further accelerate growth, and I bash deliberation the macro IPO marketplace improving is simply a bully tailwind arsenic well.

Lime banal was up astir 10% successful aboriginal trade.

At $25 a share, Lime's post-IPO marketplace capitalization sits astatine $1.63 billion, based connected an estimated 65.1 cardinal shares outstanding. Around $115 cardinal of the proceeds are earmarked to wage down debt. Underwriters clasp a 30-day enactment to bargain up to 1,043,478 further shares astatine the IPO price.

Lime describes itself arsenic the largest planetary shared micromobility business. It partners straight with cities to deploy fleets of e-bikes and e-scooters aimed astatine shorter trips. The institution says it has powered much than 1 cardinal rides crossed 5 continents and operates successful much than 230 cities worldwide. 

Lime says its mobility arsenic a work concern utilizing scooters is sustainable. 

"So we connected mean payback the bikes and scooters we enactment retired connected the streets successful little than 1 year. These vehicles past 5 years plus, and truthful successful the people of the afloat lifetime, we get instrumentality connected invested superior betwixt 4 to 5 X archetypal investment, and I deliberation that's a precise consistent, reliable return," Ting said.

The listing caps a agelong and rocky roadworthy to nationalist markets for the scooter industry. Lime and its rivals burned done task superior for years chasing metropolis contracts and warring regulatory battles implicit sidewalk clutter and safety, and respective competitors were astatine champion absorbed on the way, oregon liquidated done bankruptcy. 

Ride-hailing elephantine Uber is 1 of Lime's biggest backers, partnering with Lime successful 2018 and owning much than 10% of the company. Uber's involvement traces backmost to a $170 cardinal concern Uber made that besides helped Lime sorb Jump, Uber's ain e-bike and scooter unit, which it unopen down and folded into Lime. Uber besides guarantees immoderate of Lime's debt.