Five Point-backed WaterBridge files for US IPO as listings market heats up

Five Point-backed WaterBridge files for US IPO as listings market heats up

Aug 22 (Reuters) – Midstream water management company WaterBridge Infrastructure filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Friday, underscoring growing momentum in the new listings market.

A slew of corporate issuers have joined the IPO pipeline in recent days, setting them up for a potential September launch.

Firming bets of potential near-term rate cuts are also expected to support the constructive IPO sentiment into the fall season.

“Lower U.S. rates and a proliferation of the rally to U.S. small- and mid-caps may add fuel to the fire towards year-end,” IPOX CEO Josef Schuster said.

Cybersecurity firm Netskope and e-commerce firm Pattern also filed their paperwork on Friday to go public in New York.

WaterBridge is a pure-play water infrastructure company with operations mainly in the Delaware Basin. It is involved in gathering, transporting, recycling and handling produced water.

The Houston, Texas-based company reported a pro forma net loss of $38 million on revenue of $374.9 million in the six months ended June 30.

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The company’s infrastructure network included roughly 2,500 miles of pipelines and 196 produced water handling facilities as of July 31.

While its core focus is on oil exploration and production companies, WaterBridge is looking to expand to facilitate growing water demand from new industries.

The company caters to major oil and gas companies such as BPX Energy, Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab, Devon Energy (DVN.N), opens new tab, EOG Resources (EOG.N), opens new tab and Permian Resources (PR.N), opens new tab.

WaterBridge is a portfolio company of private equity and infrastructure investor Five Point and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.

The listing will come more than a year after the successful New York flotation of LandBridge (LB.N), opens new tab, another Five Point-backed company.

LandBridge’s shares have more than tripled since going public last year.

J.P. Morgan and Barclays are the lead underwriters for the offering. WaterBridge will list on both the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Texas under the symbol “WBI.”

Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt and other purposes.