McGraw Hill valued at $3.25 billion as shares open flat in underwhelming debut

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By Pritam Biswas

(Reuters) -U.S. publisher McGraw Hill was valued at $3.25 billion as its shares opened at par in their New York debut on Thursday, hinting at a mixed response from investors in an otherwise upbeat IPO market.

IPO market activity has rebounded strongly following a significant setback earlier in the year caused by tariff tensions, although investors have remained selective in their investment choices.

Advent-backed consumer insights company NIQ Global’s shares dipped 3.6% in their NYSE debut on Wednesday, while a bunch of others are choosing to stay private to bypass the market uncertainty.

“As a resilient company, all of those macro factors are really interesting to see, but they have no bearing on our company. We know the time is right for us now,” McGraw Hill’s CEO Simon Allen said.

Meanwhile, investors lapped up digital bank Chime and stablecoin issuer Circle’s shares on their respective first trading days, marking blowout debuts for both.

McGraw Hill’s shares opened at $17 apiece, at par with its IPO price of $17.

The Platinum Equity-backed company priced its shares below its targeted range of $19 to $22 on Wednesday to raise $414.63 million by selling 24.39 million shares in its IPO.

McGraw-Hill Education was spun off from McGraw-Hill Companies in 2013 and sold to private equity giant Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion in a take-private deal, while the remaining firm became McGraw Hill Financial Inc., later rebranded as S&P Global.

Apollo tried to relist McGraw in 2015, but the plan was shelved. Billionaire Tom Gores’ private equity firm Platinum Equity acquired McGraw for $4.5 billion in 2021.

McGraw Hill is one of the most recognized names in the publishing industry, with 99% of U.S. public K-12 districts and 82% of U.S. higher education institutions using its products, according to company filings.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)