This one sounds like cheap tulips, mass production.
But it also sounds like programmed trouble. Judge yourself.
Monday September 25 3:23 PM ET
KPMG IPO Raised to 367 Million Shares
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - KPMG Consulting Inc. on Monday added 43 million common shares to its planned initial public offering for a total 367 million shares, and could raise as much as $3.2 billion in an issue slated for early November.
The McLean, Va.-based firm is being spun off from KPMG LLP, the Big Five accounting and consulting firm, as U.S. regulators craft new guidelines aimed at limiting the scope of services that firms can offer to the same clients they serve as auditors, in an effort to forestall conflicts of interest.
The Big Five firms, including Arthur Andersen, Deloitte Touche, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, are fighting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) proposal to toughen auditor independence rules.
KPMG Consulting, which specializes in helping firms with Internet strategies, said in an amended SEC filing it did not change the projected price range of $6.75 to $8.75 per share.
According to the amended prospectus, the consulting arm lowered the number of shares it plans to offer to 59.2 million from 89 million, while the parent company raised the number of shares it planned to offer.
The consulting unit now expects to net about $435.2 million, 34 percent below its earlier goal of $660 million, according to the prospectus.
It will not receive proceeds from the sale of the remaining 307.9 million shares by its parent company, which stands to raise as much as $2.7 billion from the IPO.
According to an SEC filing in early August, the parent company expected to raise as much as $2.1 billion from the sale of 235 million shares.
After the IPO, about 592 million shares will be outstanding, giving the company an initial market capitalization of about $4.59 billion, based on a median price of $7.75 per share.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is the sole underwriter for the IPO and has been granted an over-allotments option of 55.1 million shares.
Proceeds will be used for debt repayment and to repurchase shares of its Series A preferred stock held by Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news)
It has applied to trade its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol KCIN (Nasdaq:KCIN - news). |
