Most boutique investment banks stay private for a reason: they hate having to share quarterly numbers with public investors. Lincoln International is about to break that habit.
The Chicago-based firm filed terms Monday for an initial public offering of about 21 million Class A shares at $18 to $20.
At the top end - and including the extra shares that usually get tacked on to most IPO deals - it could raise up to $421 million for Lincoln and a small group of existing shareholders.
Lincoln itself is selling about 20.6 million shares, with insiders adding roughly 446,000 more.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are running the deal as joint bookrunners.
Shares are expected to price the week of May 18 under the ticker LCLN.
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Founded in 1996, Lincoln advises mid-sized private companies on M&A - mergers and acquisitions, when companies buy each other - and pitches itself as the go-to shop for private equity and private credit clients.
It runs two business lines: investment banking advisory (the M&A work most people picture when they hear "boutique bank") and valuations and opinions (the slower, fee-based work of telling clients what their portfolio assets are actually worth).
Revenue for the 12 months ending March was $942 million across more than 30 offices in 14 countries.
Big bank IPOs usually piggyback on deal cycles. Lincoln is going public into a market where private equity firms are sitting on near-record dry powder - capital they've raised but haven't deployed yet - and starting to hunt for exits.
That's bullish for any firm that gets paid when PE buys, sells, or refinances, and Lincoln makes money on all three.
The question: will public investors value an advisory firm at the same level as the deal flow it advises on, or treat it like a service business with thinner profit margins?
LCLN won't be the only mid-market advisory firm to test the water this year. If Lincoln prices well, expect the rest of the boutique world to take notes.
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