A thirty-year-old, profitable mid-market M&A advisory franchise priced its NYSE debut at $20.00 — the top of its $18.00–$20.00 range. The business is the easy part; the structure is the fine print: an Up-C that leaves the founding partners with about 87% of the vote, and a Tax Receivable Agreement that routes most future tax savings back to them.
WHERE THIS DEAL STANDSLincoln International is trading, and Bellipo tracks it through lock-up.
RADAR Reported, nothing filed READY Terms on file, awaiting pricing PING Priced, not yet trading STRIKE The first trade crosses ORBIT Trading, through lock-upLincoln International priced on the NYSE at $20.00 — the top of its $18.00–$20.00 range — and began trading on May 20, 2026. The company sold new Class A shares while the founding partners retained roughly 87% of the vote through an Up-C structure.
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Lincoln International, Inc.
Lincoln International is a global, independent mid-market investment bank founded in 1996. It provides M&A advisory (sell-side and buy-side), capital advisory (debt and equity raising), and valuations and opinions to privately held companies, private equity sponsors, and corporates. Over roughly three decades it built a multi-country platform across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In October 2025 it acquired MarshBerry, an advisory and consulting firm focused on insurance distribution, broadening its sector coverage.
Founded 1996 Headquarters Chicago, Illinois CEO Robert T. Brown Industry Financial Advisory (Mid-Market M&A) Listing LCLN · NYSE Website www.lincolninternational.comLincoln earns advisory fees — predominantly success-based fees tied to completing M&A transactions, plus retainers and fees from capital advisory and valuation work. Revenue is therefore driven by deal volume and deal size, which rise and fall with the M&A cycle. Compensation is the largest expense: in FY2025, compensation and related expenses were about $387.7M against $783.8M of total revenue.
Lincoln International is the rare IPO where the operating business is the easy part. Founded in 1996, it advised on mid-market M&A through multiple cycles and posted FY2025 revenue of $783.8M (up 35.4%) and net income of $214.1M — a genuinely profitable franchise, not a growth-stage story. Pricing at the $20.00 top of the $18.00–$20.00 range signaled real institutional demand.
The fine print is where the work is. This is an Up-C deal: public buyers get Class A shares, while the founding partners hold Class C stock representing about 87% of the voting power (about 86% if the greenshoe is exercised), so the public float controls almost none of the vote. A Tax Receivable Agreement directs the bulk of future tax savings to those same partners. Net proceeds of roughly $383.2M went largely to repaying the Term Loan Credit Facility (about $249.4M outstanding at March 31, 2026), with the remainder for general corporate purposes — a balance-sheet clean-up, not a growth raise. And advisory revenue is inherently cyclical: it tracks deal volume, which falls hard in downturns. You are buying a high-quality, partner-controlled, cyclical fee business at a profitable point in the cycle.
Lincoln International is a global, independent mid-market investment bank founded in 1996, advising privately held companies, private equity sponsors, and corporates on M&A (sell-side and buy-side), capital raising (debt and equity), and valuations and opinions across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It listed Class A common stock on the NYSE; the founding partners retain control through an Up-C structure.
FY2025 total revenue of $783.8M was up 35.4% from $578.7M in FY2024, driven by both organic deal activity and acquisitions. Lincoln earns predominantly success-based M&A advisory fees, supplemented by capital advisory and valuations-and-opinions work.
The company uses net proceeds (approximately $383.2M) to purchase newly issued common units from Lincoln International, LP (LILP). LILP applies the proceeds to fees and expenses of the offering and the reorganization and to repay amounts outstanding under its Term Loan Credit Facility (about $249.4M as of March 31, 2026), with any remainder for general corporate purposes.
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