Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

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?

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

The midnight oil was burning bright on the syndicate desks over the last two weeks. A tsunami of secondary offerings slammed into Wall Street as 50 deals were priced that raised nearly $30 billion, according to available reports. Oh, and by the way, one IPO got out the door last week and there are another two on this week’s calendar.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) is expected to be May’s IPO curtain raiser when it’s priced this week. The new issue has already attracted a lot of media attention, and is reportedly a “hot issue.” Nevertheless, the deal carries some baggage. Here’s the story.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

The year’s first billion-dollar deal walked down the IPO runway last week. It was China Zhongwang Holdings, but its name was nowhere to be found on any U.S. new-issues calendar. The simple reason was the deal was not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Watching today’s IPO market is much like watching grass grow. By Friday, April 24, this year’s new-issues calendar had produced just five deals. That’s not unexpected, given recent market conditions. Actually, it wasn’t all that long ago that we witnessed the same scenario unfold. It was in the 2002/2003 markets.

 

All the stars are falling into place for a revival of the new-issues market. Last week’s IPO aftermarket performance was the icing on the cake. Here’s what the “CSI” evidence tells us:

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Any banquet starts with an appetizer. So far this year, the IPO market has given us two tasty morsels. This week, bankers plan to add more appetizers to the 2009 IPO menu.