Last week, we reported that Swedish oat milk giant Oatly was preparing to file for an IPO, at a staggering (but still rumored) valuation of $10 billion that would make it by far the largest public offering of any plant-based startup in history. Issuing stock on the New York Exchange would allow Oatly s bullish consumers to buy a small piece of their favorite non-dairy milk company.
A spokeswoman confirmed that Oatly has submitted an F-1 registration statement with the SEC, which is the usual step foreign companies make as a first step to issuing securities on the New York Exchange. The company is said to be valuing itself at a market cap of $10 billion, which would make it five times bigger than Beyond Meat when it launched on the big board at $25 back in October 2019. Now Beyond is trading at $154 (as of the most recent close) which puts it just a shave less than a $10 billion market cap, still smaller than what the oat milk company believes it is worth if the rumored p
As new plant milk brands continue to launch on what seems like a weekly release, Swedish brand Oatly has cemented itself on the front line of the competition. Oatly products began cropping up at coffeeshops four years ago across New York City and have since been propelled into fridges of coffee drinkers across the US. The company hopes that its growing popularity will translate to a stock surge as rumors about an Initial Public Offering (IPO) begin to grow.
Rumors Swirl That Oatly May Go Public in 2021
Last July the company sold a 200 million dollar stake in the brand to a group of investors. Spearheaded by the equity giant Blackstone Group, this move caused some controversy as a fraction of the seemingly sustainable milk alternative brand was now owned by an equity group that was also funding rainforest deforestation in the Amazon. Other investors include Oprah Winfrey, vegan actress Natalie Portman, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation. The