The Irvine, California-based senior housing and assisted living property firm's stock opened Wednesday at $12.85 each, after the firm sold 56 million shares for $12 each on Tuesday, the bottom of a marketed range. The shares closed at $13.22 in New York trading, giving the company a market value of more than $1.6 billion.

The self-managed REIT follows KKR & Co.-backed BrightSpring Health Services Inc. and Amer Sports Inc. last month in testing whether a two-year IPO drought in the U.S. is finally coming to an end. BrightSpring's shares sold for $2 below the marketed range in its $693 million IPO and have since fallen 12%. Amer Sports raised $1.37 billion after pricing its shares $3 below its market range, though the stock has since climbed 16%.

American Healthcare's IPO is one of a varied group this week that includes a biotechnology firm and a Mexican grocery chain. Those listings are set to raise well in excess of $1 billion, which would make this week the fourth in a row to hit that mark.

The listings follow a two-year listings slump after a record $339 billion was raised on U.S. exchanges in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last year, that total had fallen to $26 billion, the data show.

American Healthcare, which announced in 2022 that it had filed for an IPO, plans to use the proceeds to pay down debt, its filings show.

The investment vehicle acquires, owns and operates a portfolio of properties such as medical office buildings, senior housing, skilled nursing facilities and hospitals, according to its filings. It has almost 300 properties in states including Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Texas and Missouri, and valued its assets at about $4.6 billion as of Sept. 30. It also has properties in the U.K. and the Isle of Man.

The offering was led by Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley. American Healthcare's shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AHR.