Medline (MDLN) stock rose 40% on Wednesday to close at $40.66, as investors warmly greeted the year’s biggest IPO on one of the last trading days of the year.
The medical supply giant said late Tuesday that it had raised $6.26 billion in its IPO, selling a little over 216 million shares at $29 each, with the stock set to begin trading on Wednesday.
Based on a total Class A share count of around 1.3 billion, the company’s market cap stood north of $50 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday.
Private equity giants Blackstone (BX), Carlyle (CG), and Hellman & Friedman took a majority stake in the company in 2021, valuing the company at $30 billion.
In the first nine months of 2025, Medline’s revenue totaled $20.6 billion, up from $18.7 in the same period last year, with net income totaling $1.02 billion, up from 977 million a year ago.
The deal caps the best year for the IPO market since 2021. Wall Street’s outlook for deals and new issues is even more optimistic heading into 2026.
Recent reports have indicated that SpaceX (SPX.PVT) is likely to go public in 2026, with the company having recently struck a deal for insiders to sell stock in Elon Musk’s rocketry and satellite business, which valued the company at $800 billion.
Major artificial intelligence players like OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) are also expected to explore going public within the next 18 months, according to The Information. Database giant Databricks (DATB.PVT), which raised money at a $134 billion valuation this week, said it could explore a public offering as soon as next year.
