Messi’s MGO clothing line experiences turbulent trading day in IPO debut

MGO Global, a clothing line backed by soccer star Lionel Messi, had a volatile trading debut on Friday, soaring more than 200% before erasing its gains.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

JOSH SCHAFER: Now, we have seen investors bail out of a different name today though, guys. My play today--

DAVE BRIGGS: Big time.

JOSH SCHAFER: --is MGO-- or MGO Global, and it began trading under the ticker symbol MGOL.

Now, this is the operator of soccer star Lionel Messi's clothing brand known as The Messi Store. The stock had been on a wild ride. Take a look at that chart. It was up almost 200%-- or more than--

DAVE BRIGGS: In a few hours.

JOSH SCHAFER: --200%. And then it's come crashing down, Dave. And, really, to kind of explain why that is-- so it's a very small stock. And they had revenue of under $500 million in the first three months this year-- or, sorry, under $500,000 in the first three-- or in the first nine months this year. But to really sort of explain how this works too is, they only issued 1.5 million shares. So that can make it very volatile.

To give you sort of a reference point, another smaller retail name that we've seen, IPO, Allbirds. We all know the shoes, right?

DAVE BRIGGS: Yep.

JOSH SCHAFER: That was 19.2 million shares in the IPO. So nearly 20 times as many shares. So it's a little harder to move the--

DAVE BRIGGS: Good perspective.

JOSH SCHAFER: --stock price when there are so many shares. And that Allbirds has a $350 million market cap.

So that's why the stock is probably moving so much, but, also, it's because of Messi's fame, right?

SEANA SMITH: Yeah.

JOSH SCHAFER: We've seen Messi take off since they won the World Cup. And I think that's really what had people excited today. But that doesn't necessarily mean that this is a company that investors should be looking for for the long term.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, started by Tommy Hilfiger's sister. And I was curious if he was a shareholder. Could not find him as a disclosed shareholder in the company. It's more of a royalty play for him. I think he gets 12% of net sales.

But, look, all things Messi have taken off. I mean, 700%, the people naming their kid Messi in his home country. The Saudis want to pay him $350 million a year to come play soccer there with Ronaldo. All things Messi, other than the MGO Global, trading pretty well.