Exclusive: Airo chairman says strong IPO reflects robust aerospace demand

Investing.com - Airo Group’s market debut on Friday is reflective of "healthy investor appetite" for aerospace and defense stocks, and comes as a recent bout of economic uncertainty is calming, the drone maker’s Chairman and Co-founder Chirinjeev Kathuria has told Investing.com in an interview on Friday.

At 11:14 ET (15:14 GMT), shares were up as much as 81.5%, trading at $18.50. The stock had opened at $12.90.

Airo, which is trading on the Nasdaq Composite under the symbol "AIRO," priced its initial public offering of 6 million shares of its common stock at $10 per share. It had previously said it would offer 5 million shares at a projected range of $14 to $16 a share.

The New Mexico-based group said it expected to accrue gross proceeds from the offering of $60 million, before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other offerings expenses.

Underwriters of the flotation have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 900,000 shares, solely to cover any potential over-allotments, Airo added. Cantor Fitzgerald, BTIG, and Mizuho acted as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, it noted.

The Airo Group IPO was reportedly multiple times oversubscribed, according to Bloomberg. The offering is expected to close on June 16, subject to customary closing conditions.

Kathuria said Airo had gained "significant commercial traction" in recent years, particularly as an increasing number of countries look to bolster their defense capabilities in response to global conflicts. Kathuria had previously indicated interest in buying as much as $5 million worth of shares at the offering price.

"Given this recent growth, and the opportunities for our business ahead, we believe this is the ideal time for Airo to enter the public markets and enter our next phase of growth," Kathuria said.

Initial public offerings were largely muted after President Donald Trump unveiled his sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs at a so-called "liberation day" event on April 2.

Despite a broad-based climb in global stocks since then, investors have flagged worries over uncertainty stemming from often-erratic changes to Trump’s trade stance. Some high-profile names, including buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna and ticket platform StubHub, have reportedly delayed their IPO plans as a result of the murky outlook.

Yet the IPO market has staged a recent revival. On Thursday, fintech company Chime’s shares logged a roughly 37% spike in its debut, following in the footsteps of strong performances from Circle, CoreWeave and eToro after their recent flotations.

"The aerospace and defense sector has healthy investor appetite, and we believe we are strategically positioned in this IPO window with macro-economic uncertainty quieting down," Kathuria said.

While the duties impact a "wide range of players" in the aerospace and defense segment, Airo’s agility and diversification have also given it the tools to weather any changes in U.S. trade policies, Kathuria noted.

Although Trump has delayed most of his elevated tariffs for 90 days in order to give officials more time to negotiate trade deals with individual countries, it remains broadly unclear where these talks stand. The White House’s pause is due to expire in early July.

This week, Trump said the U.S. plans to send out letters to dozens of nations soon that will set out the terms of trade deals. He added that these countries will then have to choose whether to "take it, or [...] leave it."

Airo has taken steps to reduce its exposure to the levies, but the company believes the "tariff dynamic is simmering down" and the economic backdrop is becoming "more clear," Kathuria said.

(Senad Karaahmetovic contributed reporting.)

This article first appeared in Investing.com