Slack files for unusual direct NYSE listing

Slack submitted its plans to the US Securities Exchange Commission to go public through an unusual direct listing on Friday, avoiding the more traditional initial public offering format.

In that filing, the work-chat platform disclosed a net loss for the year ending January 31 of $139m on revenue of $401m (rise of 82% of revenue) compared to a net loss of $140m on sales of $221m in 2017.

This is the first look for investors at the San Francisco-based company’s sales and net losses. While growing very quickly, the company's appears to burning cash as it spends heavily on growth, with sales and marketing accounting for 58% of revenues.

The shares will debut on the New York Stock Exchange without a share sale by the company or the intensive marketing normally seen around an IPO.

It remains unknown how many shares Slack’s owners will register to sell when they begin trading, which is expected to take place in the next two months.

In private deals in the last two months, shareholders have sold stock at prices as high as $25 or $26 a share, which would suggest a possible initial valuation for the company of about $16bn, Bloomberg reported.

Slack had over 10m daily active users as of the end of January out of which 88,000 were paying customers, the filing revealed.

The company is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Allen & Co. on the share sale, according to its filing.