Noco-noco (NASDAQ: NCNC) shares have been up 67% this morning. This follows their 20% fall yesterday. The essential point here is that as a new IPO the markets have not, as yet, come to a mutually agreed valuation. Thus the extreme volatility here.
As to what the valuation should be that’s rather up to us of course: “Japan’s advanced electric battery technology company noco-noco Inc. is set to start trading on the Nasdaq on Monday, helping move its sustainability efforts one step closer to mainstream use.
The company, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based 3Dom Alliance Inc., is making its debut under the symbol NCNC after merging with the blank-check company Prime Number Acquisition I Corp, it said in a statement. It plans to enter the domestic leasing business with electric vehicles that use its battery separator technology to help improve longevity and heat resistance.” Hmm, leasing electric vehicles, eh? No wonder there’s a certain hesitancy in ascribing a firm number to the valuation.
The actual point of the company is in the battery technology though, not vehicles at all. “With X-SEPA™, a battery separator technology designed for long-lasting and high heat-resistant performance, and noco-noco's carbon-neutral leasing platform, noco-noco expects to address the need for clean, affordable, and sustainable energy solutions.” The leasing appears to be a way to get the batteries out into the marketplace.
Noco-noco stock price from Google Finance
The full terms of the SPAC merger seem not to have been released as yet but a reasonable assumption would be that a large-ish number of shareholders withdrew their $10 before the deal finally closed. That’s what explains the $2 level, not $10 that we’d expect.
We should also note that Noco-noco is nothing to do with NOCO, which is NASDAQ OMX Carbon Excess Return Index (NOCO) and therefore something really quite different.
As to the next stage, well, the paucity of information does make that difficult to determine. A new battery technology, supposing that it does indeed work better, is valuable. But the idea of leasing it seems to have certain business plan difficulties to us. So, for us at least, this is a matter of wait and see. We’ve simply not enough of that necessary information to be able to predict either way.
