After much anticipation, Pinterest filed its preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing its plans to go public.
The filing does not say how many shares Pinterest is planning to offer, the anticipated price range, or the amount of money it hopes to raise. Pinterest said in its filing it generated $756 million in revenue in 2018, up roughly 60 percent from the previous year.
It lost about $63 million last year, but this is less than half the $130 million it lost in 2017 and about one-third the loss from two years ago. It reported 265 million users in the fourth quarter of 2018, up from 251 million the previous quarter and 216 million users in the fourth quarter of 2017.
One hedge fund that stands to be a potentially big beneficiary of the IPO if the stock does well is Chris Hansen’s Valiant Capital Partners. Hansen previously worked for Tiger Cub John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital. According to the filing, the so-called Tiger Grandcub is one of six outside investors — and the only hedge fund — of the social media app with at least a 5 percent stake in the company.
In the filing Pinterest says its goal is to create a market value for the company and shareholders and boost its capitalization. It plans to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including working capital and operating expenses, as well as to potentially do deals.
Pinterest is worth $12.3 billion, according to data company CBInsights, making it the tenth-most-valuable private company.
The filing does not disclose exactly how much Valiant owns.
Institutional Investor has reported several times in the past that Valiant has been a long-time investor in the company. But this is the first time II has learned about the relative size of Valiant’s stake.
Valiant made separate investments in Pinterest in 2013, 2014, and 2015, according to the hedge fund’s fourth-quarter letter, obtained by Institutional Investor. They are designated as open side-pocket investments. The firm warned in its letter that “side pocket investments are difficult to value because there may not be an efficient market for those securities.”
The hedge fund said a roughly $12 million investment in Pinterest made by Valiant Capital Partners in February 2013 was worth $38.3 million at year-end. This was down slightly from the previous year.
A nearly $808,000 investment made in May 2014 has roughly doubled, while a very small investment made in February 2015 is worth slightly less, according to Valiant’s letter.
Light Street Capital Management, headed by Glen Kacher, also has an investment in Pinterest, although it is not big enough to qualify for the prospectus. The investment was one of two made by Light Street Beacon I, the firm’s new private, late-stage growth equity fund, shortly after its first close in mid-January, according to the fourth-quarter letter for its hedge fund, Light Street Halogen.
