Why Ingevity Corp (NGVT) Spin-Off Quickly 2-Bagged?

I recently updated the spreadsheet in which I track spinoff pipeline and post-spin stock performance.  Next I pulled up stock charts of spins from the past 12 months: I noticed a mix of losers, winners and even some flat-liners.   But one thing becomes crystal clear in looking at these charts: A very large majority of spin-offs are wildly mis-priced at emergence.  Mind you, when I say “mis-priced”, I am not referring to over or under-valuation but literally talking about the stock price.

Students of Special Situations investing à la Joel Greenblatt already know the usual reasons for this mis-pricing:

1. Technical/forced Selling at inception.
2. Lack of analyst coverage.
3. Lack of historical financial data.
4. Initial “noise” in financial results.

to name a few.

That said, and from what I can...