Crayfish hooks investors
By Steve Gelsi, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:22 PM ET Mar 8, 2000 NewsWatch
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Crayfish hooked investors Wednesday, as the Japanese Internet service specialist rose 414 percent to win the No. 2 slot among the biggest first-day gains by this year's crop of initial public offerings.
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03/08/2000 4:13:48 PM ET
Meanwhile, FirstWorld Communications and IPrint rang up lower-than-average advances in their debuts. See IPO Report.
Crayfish (CRFH: news, msgs) opened at 96, more than triple its offering price of $24.50. The stock picked up steam to close at 126, for a gain of 414 percent.
It was the second-biggest debut of the year, trailing only WebMethod's (WEBM: news, msgs) 508 percent gain on Feb. 11. The company also became the 10th-best first-day performer of all time, placing just beneath CacheFlow's (CFLO: news, msgs) 427 percent spike last Nov. 19. See interview with WebMethods' CEO.
The Tokyo-based Internet services specialist provides e-mail and other products.
It trimmed the size of its IPO to 4.35 million shares from 9.3 million and upped its price range to $22 to $24 from $12 to $14 before its shares were actually sold. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was its lead underwriter.
The company, which rang up $18.1 million in revenue last year, is the latest in a series of hot Asian IPOs. Last week, AsiaInfo (ASIA: news, msgs) saw a 315 percent gain on its debut. Shares fell 4 to 79 on Wednesday |
