Snowflake shares set to open at more than double their IPO price

(Reuters) – Sequoia-backed Snowflake Inc’s shares were set to open at more than double their IPO price on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, after the cloud-based data warehouse company raised $3.36 billion in the largest U.S. IPO so far in 2020.

At 12.28 p.m. ET, shares of the San Francisco-based company were indicated to open between $240 and $243 apiece compared to the IPO price of $120 per share.

At the top end, the firm will be valued at over $60 billion, making it the most valuable software IPO of all time.

Snowflake, which has been backed by Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathway Inc and venture capital firm Salesforce Ventures LLC, sold 28 million shares in its IPO priced at $120 per share, well above the range of $100 to $110 apiece.

The company’s debut comes in the middle of a massive boom in U.S. capital markets following a rebound in demand for new listings, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced many companies to put off their plans to go public earlier this year.

Prior to Snowflake, Royalty Pharma and Warner Music Group Corp had the biggest stock market debuts this year.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Allen & Co and Citigroup were the lead underwriters for the IPO.

(Reporting by C Nivedita in Bengaluru and Joshua Franklin in Boston; Additional reporting by Niket Nishant; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Arun Koyyur)