FT Alphaville » IPO

A Ruckus ruckus

Paul Murphy — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:28:48 +0000

The US initial public offering of a little wireless kit maker on Friday confirmed what everyone already knew: the IPO market is dead – or at least deadly dangerous.

Everyone knew this, except the lead underwriters of Ruckus Wireless – Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche bank.

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Ship of Theseus seeks flotation

Bryce Elder — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:00:18 +0000

Those who argue for a further relaxation of the LSE’s listing rules may want to note the following announcement:

Rangers, the Scottish football club, today announces its intention to seek Admission to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

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It’s gotta close greenshoe!

Joseph Cotterill — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:51:23 +0000

Update after the close: It closed green(shoe) at $38.23 according to Bloomberg data. But not until after a few moments close to $38.00, as seen below earlier…

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Calstrs takes aim at Facebook board

Joseph Cotterill — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:24:39 +0000

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Calstrs, has called for Facebook to split the role of chairman and chief executive and to appoint a woman to its all-male board for the first time, the FT reports. Calstrs, one of the biggest US public pension funds, is already invested in Facebook through its private equity holdings, and will pick up shares through index-tracking after its IPO. Calstrs’ demand for shareholders to be given voting powers according to the size of their stake will be a tough request to meet, however. Facebook has revealing in filings that Mark Zuckerberg paid nominal sums to other shareholders in agreements to gain enormous voting clout, says NYT Dealbook.

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Caesars IPO prices casino chain at $1.13bn

Izabella Kaminska — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:17:40 +0000

Caesars Entertainment, the casino chain carrying more than $22bn in debt, completed an initial public offering that gives the company a market value of $1.13bn, Bloomberg reports. Las Vegas-based Caesars, taken private in a $30.7bn buyout by Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital in 2008, raised $16.3m selling 1.81m shares at $9 each, the company said in a statement. The stock, which was offered for $8 to $10 apiece, will start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Wednesday under the symbol CZR. The $16.3m raised is a fraction of what it was hoping to muster two years ago. Reuters says the deal is often referred to as an example of how the credit bubble that preceded the financial crisis of 2008 led to overleveraged deals that have left their private equity investors with a Herculean challenge of getting their money back. Caesars’ earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $1.8bn in the 12 months ending September 30 on interest expenses of $1.93bn, according to its IPO document.

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Second thoughts on Facebook valuation

Joseph Cotterill — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:28:22 +0000

Facebook already has so much cash, and so little desire for true shareholder control, that it should really call its IPO off instead of “gratifying” its venture capital backers and employees, the FT’s John Gapper writes in a must-read column. Investors have reacted warily to Facebook’s suggested $75bn-$100bn valuation of 100 times price to earnings, says Reuters. Google emerged on public markets in 2005 with a price 218 times its earnings, but was valued at $23bn at the time. Facebook’s price tag would make it worth 53 per cent of Google’s current valuation, despite the latter company earning 10 times the profit, notes the WSJ.

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Facebook serves notice on $5bn IPO

Izabella Kaminska — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:12:55 +0000

Facebook launched the process for its highly anticipated stock market debut, filing papers for a $5bn initial public offering that will turn key shareholders into billionaires, most notably Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old chief executive and co-founder, the FT reports. Mr Zuckerberg’s 28.4 per cent stake would give him a paper worth of $22.7bn, based on secondary market trading, valuing Facebook at $80bn. More striking is the absolute control Mr Zuckerberg will retain over the company. He and his close allies own 57 per cent of the company, guaranteeing that he will be able to run Facebook more like the mission-driven public trust he envisioned in his Harvard dorm room eight years ago than a public company beholden to investors. “Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company,” he wrote in a letter to investors in the filing. “Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

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The ‘quiet’ CFO behind Facebook’s IPO filing

Joseph Cotterill — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:42:15 +0000

Facebook’s filing on Wednesday is set to price its initial public offering at some $5bn, but could be increased in response to investor demand, IFR reports. Guiding the IPO will be David Ebersman, Facebook’s quiet but no-nonsense chief financial officer, says AllThingsD. “Facebook is not taking chances with this IPO and wants to make it a blue-chip event,” one source told AllThingsD. Ebersman has pushed to keep banks’ fees in the offering low.

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The LSE’s call to action

Neil Hume — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:52:42 +0000

Sadly, the London Stock Exchange’s plan to fix the broken UK IPO market is unlikely to work for the simple reason that it doesn’t really believe there’s a problem.

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What goes up, must come down

Neil Hume — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:03:50 +0000

SuperDroop has closed below its 500p IPO price target for the first time on Tuesday, as the market continues to digest the recent sell note from Numis Securities.

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