The heavy demand for Pivotree stock helped keep the shares well above the issue price Friday despite broad declines for stocks. Pivotree stock was trading at $9.75, or 15 per cent above its issue price, just before 1 p.m.
By contrast, BBTV shares were down 12 per cent and have now dropped 23 per cent since going public at $16 a share on Wednesday. Pivotree is a technology-services company that manages e-commerce operations for medium to large companies, using tools from software providers including Shopify, Elastic Path, Oracle and SAP. Its 150-plus clients include retailers Aldo, Farm Boy, Princess Auto and Simons, branded-product makers Electrolux, Mitsubishi and Polaris, and Thomson Reuters and Boeing.
Mr. Di Nardo’s private capital company, Eventi Capital, first invested in Pivotree’s predecessor in 2007. Eventi bought out founder Brian Shepard in 2015 and Mr. Di Nardo took over, pushing the company to increasingly move its offering onto cloud-hosting services. In 2018, Pivotree bought two e-commerce technology-service providers that expanded its capabilities to implement Oracle and SAP tools and helped Pivotree nearly triple revenue to $59.7-million in 2019 from 2017 levels.
Pivotree’s non-recurring revenues have taken a hit because of the pandemic, but overall revenues in the first half of $30.8-million were 8-per-cent higher than the same period in 2019, driven by a 16-per-cent gain in recurring revenues. Pivotree lost $2.9-million in 2019.Canadian tech stocks have had a strong year in line with global trends as Docebo, Dye & Durham and Nuvei traded up sharply from their IPO prices. But tech shares have been hit by overall market volatility in recent days.