UL Solutions went public

UL Solutions listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 12 April 2024, trading under the symbol ULS, with the offering closing on 16 April. UL Standards & Engagement, the non-profit organisation that held the entire capital, sold 38,870,000 Class A shares at 28 dollars each, including the 5,070,000 covered by the underwriters’ over-allotment option, raising around 1.08 billion dollars. The company itself received no proceeds, the whole of the offering consisting of existing shares. At that price the company was valued at approximately 5.8 billion dollars. Headquartered at Northbrook in Illinois, UL Solutions tests products against safety standards and certifies those that comply, which allows manufacturers to sell them in markets requiring such approval. It inspects factories, audits supply chains and verifies performance and environmental claims, across electrical goods, building materials, medical devices and industrial equipment. The certification mark is what customers buy. A product carrying it can be listed by retailers, accepted by insurers and approved by building inspectors, and a manufacturer that has designed a product around one testing regime does not readily move to another, which gives the activity recurring revenue from customers who return for each new model and each annual re-inspection. The structure preceding the listing was unusual, the business having operated under a non-profit organisation that set the standards against which it tested. Separating the two, with the standards body retaining control through its remaining shares while the testing company trades publicly, was the purpose of the transaction. Latham & Watkins acted as legal counsel to UL Solutions.

As a reminder, UL Solutions had previously acquired Cere in 2023 as part of its expansion strategy.