Intriguing (or Deceiving) IPOs: AIRO Group Holdings (AIRO)

A company electing to go public this week feels like a red flag.

Resting soldier, Mikhail Larionov, 1911, oil on canvas (Tretyakov Gallery)

I’m surprised anyone is trying to go public right now, but two companies plan to go public this week. One is a China-based tea store chain, which I’m going to immediately cast aside for numerous reasons (variable interest entities listing in the US, US/China relations, and the last Chinese hot beverage company to go public had a massive accounting issue).

For the most part, long-term investors shouldn’t really care when a company goes public. What matters is the quality of the business and management’s execution. However, businesses should care when they go public because the market’s mood will determine how much money they can raise to fund future endeavors.

With this in mind, I’m somewhat puzzled as to why AIRO Group Holdings (NASDAQ: AIRO) decided to go public this week. If a company has enough access to capital (either from existing operations or from the private market), then going public right now seems silly. There has to be a better time to go public than in the midst of the capital markets putting up the “out to lunch” sign until we get a more defined tariff strategy.

And yet the aerospace and defense contractor is electing to go public this week (I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to pull the IPO between when I write this and their IPO). So let’s dig into this small aerospace company to see what’s under the hood and make some knee-jerk conclusions of this inopportune IPO.

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