Initial public offerings or IPOs are known as a great way for investors to make a big profit in a relatively short time. On average, they can bring investors 40% returns in the first 3 months. Once the initial funding stages are out of the way, IPOs can be a great way for companies to sell their shares on the open market and raise more capital to continue their growth.If you’re into all kinds of vegan stuff, or maybe you’re a fan of oat milk, you may have asked, “is Oatly publicly traded?” Read on to find out about Oatly stock IPO and all the important information about Oatly IPO date and price.
Oatly History
Even though Oatly is relatively new to American consumers, the company and its oat milk have been around for almost three decades.
In fact, Oatly are the inventors of oat milk. In the early 90s, Rickard Öste was doing serious academic research at Lund University looking to find alternatives for cow’s milk for those who are lactose intolerant.
Rickard co-founded Oatly with his brother Björn in 1994.
Perhaps the idea was ahead of its time, because the company was “left out of the industry” according to Rickard Öste. After releasing the product through a number of partnerships, in 2001 Oatly was launched as a separate brand. The company found a small but dedicated following that supported their activity, but their growth was slow.
All of this changed when the company brought in Toni Petersson as CEO in 2014, who brought in the knowledge, experience and character needed for the business to make it in the US and internationally.
Patersson changed the simple packaging, changed the branding to a bold, noticeable one, with cool krafty yet simple design complete with speech bubbles, handdrawn elements and phrases like “Wow! No cow!”
In 2017, Petersson demonstrated Oatly’s minimal environmental impact and high sustainability by commissioning a report, which showed that Oatly is much better for the environment than cow dairy. That way he was legally allowed to make bold claims about the product on its packaging.
Oatly has become a popular brand of alternative milk in the US. It’s used at Starbucks and a group of investors including Oprah Winfrey and Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, invested $200 million into Oatly in 2020.
In 2020 the company’s revenue more than doubled from the previous year, reaching $420 million. Perhaps as the company was becoming more successful and more public, the management led by visionary Petersson started asking themselves, “when is Oatly going public?”
Read on to find out about Oatly IPO 2021 and other key info.
Oatly Public Listing Key Data and IPO Date
Oatly IPO Date: May 20, 2021
Ticker: OTLY
Exchange: Nasdaq
IPO stock price: $17
Valuation at IPO: $10 billion
Market cap (24/8/22): $2 billion
CEO: Toni Petersson
Category: Consumer staples
Oatly launched its IPO on Nasdaq on Thursday, May 20, 2021 and started trading with the stock symbol OTLY.
The Oatly IPO price was set at $17 per share, which would give the company a valuation of $10 billion. The first trade was at $22.12, 30% higher than the initial price, which increased the company’s value to $13.1 billion.
The IPO made the founders very rich for a month. Rickard Öste, who owns the majority of Oatly’s holding company Ceba AB, and his brother Bjorn, had a combined net worth of $562 million on their IPO date. This grew until the all-time highs and, naturally, has been falling ever since. Oatly’s market cap is now $2 billion as of August 2022.
Oatly launched a traditional IPO instead of merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). These are companies created solely for the purpose of merging with and launching a company on the market. This was a popular way for companies to go public during the IPO boom in 2020 and 2021 as this makes the IPO process cheaper and easier. Many of these IPOs didn’t do too well, just like IPOs in general, so this practice is less popular now.
So What About Investing Now?
Ok let’s cut to the chase. While Oatly is all cool and that, the best time to invest in the company’s shares was on May 20, 2021, the day of the IPO. The best time to sell was under a month after that. Those who sold at the all-time high of $28.73 made 40% on their investment. Since then the stock has been falling and is almost 90% down from its all-time highs. Nowadays it’s not a great time to invest in it, just like in most other IPOs.
Overall, the Oatly IPO can hardly be called a success, but this goes for the majority of IPOs in recent years.
However, those who bet on the company’s long-term success may find the current stock price of $3.3 a great bargain. The company has been making good business moves, including a partnership with Starbucks to provide 90% of oatmilk for their coffee stores.
It’s important to note that investing in IPOs is much more risky than investing in stocks, or better, building a balanced portfolio of stocks in an industry you know or believe in.
Investments like IPOs are speculative and much riskier than big companies with proven business models, robust earnings, and potential to scale. While it’s fun to try, don’t rely on IPOs to bring you money, timing the market is hard.
Check out our IPO section to look at other scheduled IPOs. If you want to find companies that match your interests, investment goals and portfolio, try Gainy for some great IPO investment ideas, as well as established blue-chip companies and a variety of other assets.
FAQ
When is the Oatly IPO date?
The Oatly stock IPO date was May 20, 2021. The nex-gen food company was listed on Nasdaq with the ticker symbol OTLY.
Is Oatly a public company?
Yes, Oatly has been a public company since their IPO. When a company launches an IPO (or initial public offering) this means they become a public company whose shares are traded on the stock exchange.
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