RESERVOIR: IPO MISFIRE?

Music rights company Reservoir Media took the popular route to go public, sidestepping a traditional IPO by merging with Roth CH Acquisition II Co, a SPAC that raised $115m in December 2020. Notably, the SPAC had opened at a $10 IPO price, while the newly combined Reservoir Media has never closed above $10.

Reservoir (RSVR), which had revenue estimated at $64m for the fiscal year ending 3/31, began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on 7/29, opening at $9.49 with a market cap of $788m. Since then it's lost more than 35% of its market cap, with its price falling almost 25% at one point. As of the close on 8/10, it was trading at 7.92, with a market cap of $507m.

Reservoir, the latest music-rights acquisition company to go public and the first to do so in the U.S., is led by CEO/founder Golnar Khosrowshahi. It represents more than 130k copyrights and 36k master recordings, with publisher shares of songs that include Post Malone's "rockstar," Childish Gambino's "This Is America," Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” and Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach.”