(Reuters) – Electric aviation and regional air travel company Surf Air Mobility said on Thursday it expects the company’s shares to start trading on July 11, setting the stage for the first major direct listing in the United States in months.
Surf Air’s shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “SRFM”, it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contrary to an initial public offering, shares are not sold in advance in a direct listing. Shareholders are allowed to sell shares directly to the public and net any proceeds from the sale. The stock price at debut is determined by orders coming into the stock exchange.
Advocates of direct listing argue it is a better way to price new stock rather than an IPO.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global and workplace communication software Slack Technologies went public through direct listings. Slack was later bought by Salesforce.
Surf Air had initially signed a $1.42 billion deal with a blank-check company to go public, but that deal was terminated last year as interest in the special purpose acquisition company market waned.
The frosty market for stock listings has begun to thaw, with a number of companies having logged strong market debuts in recent months.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
