More of Baillie Gifford’s unquoted bets look set to bear fruit, with holdings in its Schiehallion fund and Scottish Mortgage trust eyeing possible flotations.
Last Tuesday one of Schiehallion’s largest holdings, Allbirds, revealed it had filed for what it is calling a “sustainable” initial public offering in the US.
By using wools and other natural materials in place of synthetic fibres, the San Francisco shoemaker claims the carbon impact from its footwear is 30% less than competitors. Despite being valued at over $1bn (£720m) at its last funding round, the direct-to-consumer retailer is yet to turn a profit.
Schiehallion’s stake represented 2.9% of the trust’s ordinary share net asset value as at the end of July, according to Jefferies. The Guernsey-listed investment company is now the priciest in the IT Growth Capital sector with data from the Association for Investment Companies citing shares to NAV at a 33.4% premium.
Allbirds’ plan to IPO comes as Warby Parker, another big Schiehallion holding, is close to debuting on the public market. The affordable eyeglasses maker, which was around 2.8% of the portfolio at the end of July, revealed in pre-IPO filings that it has seen losses widen over the past three years, despite raking in higher sales. It was valued at over $3bn at its funding round last August.
Wise, which is Schiehallion’s largest holding at 5.4%, listed in July, following on from public listings for synthetics biology firm Zymergen (1.4%) and health insurer Oscar Health (0.9%).
Scottish Mortgage crypto wallet provider could list in 18 months
One of the newest additions to Scottish Mortgage’s unquoted portfolio Blockchain.com also hinted at a possible IPO in the not-too-distant future.
CFO Macrina Kgil said last week the crypto wallet provider could be just one and a half years out from a public listing after revealing it had surpassed $1trn in crypto transactions.
Scottish Mortgage managers James Anderson and Tom Slater picked up a small stake in Blockchain.com in March, after participating in a funding round which valued the business at $5.2bn.
See also: Scottish Mortgage ploughs £72m into crypto wallet provider
While the £20.2bn trust is not exclusively invested in late-stage private companies, like Schiehallion is, over the years its unquoted exposure has become a bigger proportion of the portfolio.
Several of its unquoted holdings, including Ginkgo Bioworks, have gone public after merging with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac).
Flying taxi company Joby Aviation finalised its merger with Reinvent Technology Partners, a Spac set up by tech moguls Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, at the end of August. Before the deal completed two thirds of Reinvent’s shareholders redeemed their shares.
See also: Scottish Mortgage hikes borrowings by £200m as assets continue to climb
