Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Depending upon which IPO service you follow, you’ll find either two or three deals on this week’s new-issues calendar. Two are newly minted companies while the other has been publicly traded since October 2005.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

The yellow brick road to the Land of IPOs starts at the filing window of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week was the busiest in 11 months. The funny thing was that it wasn’t just munchkins or bumper cars going down that yellow brick road. Weaving in and out of traffic: A bull was spotted. The NASDAQ Composite Index closed at a high for 2009 on Friday.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Every now and then a strange creature will wiggle its way onto somebody’s IPO calendar. It really isn’t your day-to-day initial public offering; it’s known by different names. This week’s calendar has one such deal. It is called a bank conversion and it’s offered on a “best effort” basis.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Traditionally the IPO market closes down for the July 4^th holiday and 2009 was no different. Even though this year’s new-issue traffic has been slow with just slightly over a dozen deals, there is an emerging trend. Last week’s offering confirmed it: Technology is “in.”

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Wall Street expects to celebrate the July 4^th holiday with its own fireworks this week. It can be found in the IPO calendar under the name of LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM) — another one of the year’s hot tech IPOs.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

June’s IPO month and the year’s first half come to a close this week with four deals on the calendar. If everything gets out the door, it will raise June’s total to six and the year’s to 14 IPOs. That’s the good news — and the bad news.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

By mid-June, the IPO calendar’s two pricings resulted in a split decision. Both offerings were REITs — one a winner and the other wasn’t. This week, the IPO gods take a holiday and then come back the following week with four offerings. Two of the four are Chinese.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

June’s first IPO crashed on take-off when Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV) opened down 60 cents per share from its initial offering price. Then Wall Street’s syndicate desks went back to the hot ticket in town — the secondary calendar. They priced 13 deals for Friday’s market. That raised the week’s total to 34, according to available reports.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

June’s IPO calendar kicks off with a real estate investment trust offering. The name is Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV – proposed), which invests in properties leased to various U.S. government agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Food and Drug Administration, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration and others. Now, those are tenants nobody wants to mess with.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Thunder and lightning swept into the market last week when a couple of tech IPOs got priced. When something like that happens, the first thing any Wall Streeter asks is: “That’s nice, but what do you have for us now?” The answer -– real estate investment trusts, or REITs. The next question is: Why switch from watching corn pop to grass grow?