OUR TH YEAR www.slenterprise.com January 11, 2021 Volume , Number 25 $1.50 5O OF NOTE Economist: Growth should be Qualtrics IPO strong when pandemic abates will be all-time we’ve never seen before,” he said. “The Brice Wallace contraction was dramatic and swift, and The Enterprise coming out of it, in the short term, the econ- omy will continue to struggle.” largest in Utah Better but different. That, he said, will be especially true John Rogers That’s the short version of Zions in the economic sectors hardest-hit by the The Enterprise One big car company Bank’s 2021 outlook for the economy. pandemic’s impacts: leisure and hospitality, During a webinar last week, Robert Spend- travel and tourism, and personal services. Shareholders of both Fiat Qualtrics International Inc., the Provo- love, the bank’s senior economist, said the “The economy is being driven by the Chrysler Automobiles and based customer experience software maker, U.S. and the Intermountain region’s econ- virus and as long as we have the virus con- Peugeot maker PSA Groupe has taken the fi rst step in taking the compa- omies are fundamentally sound and ulti- tinuing to surge, the economy will continue ny public by fi ling a form S-1 with the Se- approved the merger of the two mately will recover from the COVID-19 to struggle,” Spendlove said. “As the vac- curities and Exchange Commission late last car giants last week. That means pandemic. cine rollout starts to accelerate, as more peo- month. The fi ling, which must be submitted the companies are accelerating “It is important to keep in mind that ple get immunity, we’ll be able to re-open by a business ahead of its initial public offer- plans to complete their trans- the economy will be different a year from the parts of the economy that are being con- ing, provides potential investors with a look Atlantic merger, saying that the now than it was a year ago,” Spendlove strained and we should actually see strong into the company’s fi nances and stated goals. said. “We’re kind of in a new normal. We economic growth in the latter half of 2021 biggest automotive merger this The move comes just over two years after don’t know exactly what it’s going to look and we should see markets, individuals and century should be complete mid- Qualtrics was purchased by multinational January. The two plan to call like, but it will be different. But to me, this economies returning to normal.” is kind of the nature of a dynamic econo- Germany-based software giant SAP SE. the newly combined auto maker Spendlove described the past year as a my, and I remain optimistic about the fu- The IPO is expected to be launched lat- Stellantis NV. ture.” er this month or in early February. Innovate Utah The year 2020 was “something that see ECONOMY page 13 Qualtrics, which fi rst announced its in- tent to go public in July, said in its Dec. 28 page 7 fi ling it plans to sell an undetermined num- Industry News Briefs ber of shares for $20 to $24 each. Its pa- pages 8-9 perwork with the SEC listed a placeholder amount of $100 million, which will like- Business Calendar ly change once it sets the amount of stock page 11 that it plans to market. At the top end of that range, the IPO would value Qualtrics at about $14.4 billion — making the IPO by far the largest ever in Utah — based on about 600 million shares to be outstanding after the listing. Qualtrics’s co-founder and former CEO, Ryan Smith, who recently bought the NBA’s Utah Jazz from the Larry Miller family, agreed to buy 6 million shares — or about 1 percent of the outstanding stock — for $20 per share, the fi ling shows. That would make Smith the largest individu- al shareholder in the company, fulfi lling a Advanced Health Care of St. George is one of more than 20 transitional care facilities operated by commitment he made in July. Advanced Health Care Corp., which was purchased by the Larry H. Miller Group of Cos. last week. SAP paid $8 billion for Qualtrics in November 2018 in its biggest-ever deal in an effort to compete with rivals such as LHM Group jumps into healthcare Salesforce.com Inc. According to analysts, taking Qualtrics public marks a shift in SAP’s strategy under CEO Christian Klein, industry, buys transitional care co. who secured the top job at the company in April. When former CEO Bill McDermott Salt Lake City-based Larry H. Mill- The transaction adds to the LHM announced the purchase — topping off a er Group of Cos. has acquired Advanced Group’s portfolio of automotive dealer- $26 billion acquisition spree to push SAP Health Care Corp. (AHC), one of the na- ships, movie theaters, real estate invest- into cloud-based software and services — tion’s largest pure-play post-acute tran- ments and developments, auto fi nance, and investors sent its shares down 4.7 percent as sitional care providers. AHC, founded in insurance services. they balked at the price tag. Idaho in 2001, specializes in short-term “We couldn’t be more pleased to wel- SAP will try to maintain ownership of nursing and rehabilitation, home health and come AHC to the Larry H. Miller family at least three-quarters of Qualtrics after the hospice services. The company employs of businesses,” said Steve Starks, CEO IPO, Bloomberg News reported. approximately 2,000 people with operations for the LHM Group. “This acquisition is Qualtrics also revealed in the fi l- in eight states: Arizona, California, Colo- rado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico see LHM GROUP page 15 see QUALTRICS page 15 and Utah. 2 • January 11-17, 2021 • The Enterprise - Utah's Business Journal Milford project will reduce hog-raising gases by 100,000 metric tons per year A network of family farms Smithfi eld Foods Inc. of Smith- Smithfi eld Foods oper- worldwide power consortium sions across our domestic supply near Milford in Beaver County fi eld, Virginia. The joint enter- ates worldwide with more than that purchased Utah-based Que- chain 25 percent by 2025 and be- has begun producing renewable prise, named Align Renewable 50,000 employees. It operates star Gas in 2016. come carbon-negative in all U.S. natural gas (RNG) through a joint Natural Gas, has 26 family hog several company-owned and con- The project is the fi rst large- company-owned operations by venture between Dominion En- farms under contract in Beaver tract farms as well as a feed yard scale effort in the state to capture 2030.” ergy of Richmond, Virginia, and County. in Utah. Dominion Energy is a methane from hog farming op- “This is an exciting break- erations and convert it into clean through for the future of clean energy for homes, businesses and energy and sustainable farming,” transportation. Signifi cantly more said Ryan Childress, Dominion greenhouse gas emissions are cap- Energy’s director of gas business tured from the farms than are re- development. “With this single leased when consumers use the technology, we can produce clean gas, which makes RNG a “carbon- energy for consumers, reduce benefi cial” energy source, compa- farm emissions and benefi t fam- ny offi cials said. ily farmers. It’s a powerful exam- At full capacity, the project ple of the environmental progress will produce enough RNG to heat we can make through innovation. more than 3,000 homes and busi- We’re thrilled Utah is leading the nesses and reduce annual emis- way, and we’re excited to keep the sions from participating farms by momentum going in other states more than 100,000 metric tons. across the country.” That is the same as taking 23,000 In the largest venture of its cars off the road or planting 1.8 kind in the United States, Domin- million new trees each year, ac- ion and Smithfi eld are jointly in- cording to Align. Additionally, the vesting $500 million over the next project benefi ts participating fam- 10 years to develop RNG proj- ily farmers by simplifying the pro- ects across the country. Once the An anaerobic digester, part of the process of turning waste from hog farming operations in Beaver County into cess of and reducing the cost asso- partnership’s planned projects are renewable natural gas, is shown on a farm near Milford. Dominion Energy and Smithfi eld Foods Inc. have launched ciated with manure management. complete, they will reduce annu- the project on 26 farms in a cooperative effort to reduce the carbon footprint of protein-raising operations. “We’re excited to witness the al greenhouse gas emissions from completion of our initial project U.S. hog farms by 2.5 million in Utah, as we continue to scale metric tons, the same amount as and implement renewable ener- taking 500,000 cars off the road or gy projects across the country,” planting 40 million new trees each said Kraig Westerbeek, senior di- year. rector of Smithfi eld Renewables With the Utah project in op- and hog production environmen- eration and additional projects un- tal affairs for Smithfi eld Foods. der development in North Caro- “Our Align RNG partnership with lina and Virginia, the partnership Dominion Energy is a key com- plans to produce enough renew- ponent of Smithfi eld’s carbon-re- able natural gas over the next 10 duction strategy, which promises years to heat more than 70,000 to reduce greenhouse gas emis- homes and businesses.