Abney Associates Comments on Upcoming IPOs of Note

Online, February 24, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Despite less than ideal economic conditions in its homeland of Russia, hypermarket retailer Lenta Ltd has decided to proceed with plans for London IPO that would see the company gain a market valuation of between $4.09 and $4.95 billion dollars, through the sale of 22% of the retailers share capital by its primary owners including U.S. leveraged buyout fund TPG Capital, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and VTB Capital. The offer will consist of global depositary receipts with valuations expected to be in a range between $9.50 and $11.50, with five receipts representing one share in Lenta.

Jawbone the San Francisco based Technology Company founded by Stanford University Graduates Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman as Aliph in 1999 to develop noise-cancelling technology for the U.S. military. Has since that time moved forward developing multiple products used in both audio play back and web interface devices used to help wearers track their lifestyle and fitness patterns. The company, which holds over 230 registered patents for its products and integral design technology, is seeking to raise $300 million in its IPO, which would give, Jawbone a market valuation of $3 billion. The IPO is expected to be financed by Rizvi Traverse Management LLC, one of Twitter Inc's biggest investors and is reportedly already oversubscribed.

"Ironically you couldn't hope to find to more seemingly different companies to consider investing into. On one hand you've got a Russian hypermarket Lenta seeking to list even as the Russian economy slows and on the other a very hip and popular tech firm Jawbone coming to the market amidst interest generated by Google Inc's buyout of Nest Labs and increasing valuations in the market sector that they themselves are dominating. What they do have in common is that they are both fundamentally strong concerns who already know how to be make money and have formulated long term strategic growth targets which they are both not only meeting but exceeding," stated Nicholas Quimby the Head of the Research at Abney Associates.

Jawbone whose already extensive product line competes head to head in certain sectors with much larger and well established tech companies like Apple Inc, and in many cases outperforms them such as in the case of its first non headset product a blue tooth wireless speaker unit and phone called Jambox, whose sales outperformed those of its rivals by a factor of 10:1. The company has also grown rapidly thanks to clearly design acquisition goals such as the February 2013 acquisition of design firm Visere, known for its work on both hardware and software, and MassiveHealth, maker of the crowd-sourced food app, The Eatery.

"Both of these companies represent significant opportunities for investors, Lenta because of their 31% sales growth in the face of contracting markets in Russia and their intention to double the 77 warehouse-sized hypermarkets and 10 supermarkets in 45 Russian cities that they already operate. Jawbone is pretty much already the market leader in their broad web product field and will increase in value as a listed company while at the same time becoming an even more attractive takeover target as like in the case of Nest Labs inc," concluded Nicholas Quimby from Abney Associates.

Abney Associates are a Hong Kong based company that provides a range of financial services to individual clients, portfolio companies, corporate investors and entrepreneurs who wish to take unbiased financial advice.

Abney Associates are primarily a team of financial specialists who pride themselves on having a high level of expertise and vast experience for diligently monitoring any positive or negative developments to companies currently listed on exchanges globally, especially those that may affect client investment interests. This is done in order to ensure the financial advice given is factually correct and delivered in an effective way.