October IPO spotlight: 7 ASX stocks to keep an eye on

Seven new companies are listing on the ASX this month in October, with two already trading.

This could be the last spurt of IPOs we’ll see for the rest of 2023, a year marked by a lack of new listings.

Consider that Canva has rescheduled its IPO plans until as late as 2026, and there are only three so far for November.

But that hasn’t deterred everybody.

Here are the top seven ASX stocks to watch in the IPO market this month:

Nido Education (ASX:NDO)

Owner and operator of early childhood education and care centres Nido Education listed on October 16 at $1.00 per share.

The company raised $99.2 million, 2023’s third-largest ASX IPO. Cannacord Genuity acted as underwriter.

“Nido” is Italian for “nest” and the company is run by former Think Childcare boss Mat Edwards.

Since listing, the share price has dropped 3.5 per cent to 96.5 cents. Share turnover is also low, so far.

CGN Resources (ASX:CGR)

WA exploration miner CGN Resources listed today for 20 cents a share.

Its IPO was jointly led by Oracle Capital and 708 Capital. The explorer is focusing on WA’s West Arunta region for copper, nickel, and rare earths.

Called the Webb project, its acreage is confirmed prospective by historical diamond drill cores. The venture is headed by Metso Outotec’s Darryl Harris.

Shares were slightly lower heading toward market close today, trading at 19.5 cents.

Freedom Care (ASX:FCG)

Here’s an interesting one.

Freedom Care lists on October 19. It’s raising $3.2 million and Novus Capital acted as lead manager, shares will list at 20 cents.

Freedom Care is actually a company called Resource Generation, or ResGen, which owns a coal mine in South Africa. ResGen will now rename and start providing NDIS services.

What exactly a coal miner can teach a carer remains to be seen. Worth noting is that Sydneysider finance personality Zoran Grujic wrote the opening gambit for the prospectus.

ResGen, which de-listed off the ASX in October last year, has been keeping a pretty healthy pro-coal blog ever since.

Note: on the day it was supposed to list, Freedom Care shifted its listing date to 9 November.

Far Northern Resources (ASX:FNR)

Far Northern lists on October 23 raising $6 million at 20 cents per share to acquire Bridge Creek Pty Ltd, giving the company full access to three tenements in the NT.

Those will join its northern Australian portfolio between NT and QLD. The company is sniffing out gold and base metals.

Headed by Roderick Paul Corps, the company owns 100 per cent of Rocks Reef and 73.6 per cent of the Empire gold project.

Empire boasts a resource estimate of under 25,000 ounces of gold and the company included “$850,000 worth of mining equipment” into its prospectus. Make of that what you will.

Great Dirt (ASX:GR8)

Can you guess what this company does?

Great Dirt lists on October 23 raising $5 million at 20 cents a share. Westar Capital act as lead manager.

The manganese explorer is betting on future market projections the metal will be swept up along with decarbonisation.

Chaired by Jeremy Whybrow, Great Dirt is going on the hunt for its target metals – and “potentially” others – at its Doherty and Basin projects respectively near Barraba in NSW.

The Doherty project has in the past churned out decent manganese production, as noted in Great Dirt’s prospectus.

Chariot Corporation (ASX:CC9)

Another day, another miner in the lucky country.

Chariot Corp lists on October 26 raising $15.5 million at 45 cents a share. Wilsons Corporate Finance and Jett Capital jointly manage.

The ASX-listed but US-based lithium explorer is on the hunt for Australia’s favourite battery metal across its core Black Mountain and Resurgent projects respectively.

Black Mountain is hard rock while Resurgent is a claystone lithium asset. Both suggest high-grade mineralisation at surface, the company says.

Chaired by Murray Bleach, the company also has six other projects on its radar.

Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM)

Already listed in New York on the NYSE, and on Toronto’s TSX, Newmont is now coming to the land down under on October 27.

The global miner will adopt the ticker code NEM when its Chess Depositary Interests hit the bourse following its acquisition of Newcrest (ASX:NCM).

Newcrest shareholders will receive 0.4 Newmont shares for every share held plus a locked-in US$1.10 per share dividend.