The IPO factories might be coming back sooner than we think (everybody CMGI, ICGE, RRRR up 22+% today):
IPO price range rules eased
Change may help companies pitch shares
By Steve Gelsi, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 11:44 AM ET Oct. 10, 2001
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - The Security and Exchange Commission is relaxing a rule on preliminary price ranges for companies going public in a move that will likely benefit the sluggish market for initial public offerings.
Until recently, companies have had to put out preliminary price ranges about a month into the six- to 12-month process of taking themselves public.
That has led to companies putting out lower price ranges as they come closer to their debuts in the face of volatile markets.
The downward revisions are usually seen as a blow to a prospective IPO since it makes it seem as if the company is less desirable.
Now the SEC is waiving the pricing requirement in order to allow companies to set their price range later in the IPO approval process, after they've more thoroughly gauged investor interest.
"We made an adaptation to the administrative process in order to accommodate current market conditions," an SEC spokesman told Reuters.
The move comes as companies flee the IPO market, which is slowly emerging from its longest hiatus in decades.
This week, TheraSense (THER: news, chart, profile) is on deck to raise $120 million with underwriter US Bancorp Piper Jaffray on the heels of last week's debut from Given Imaging (GIVN: news, chart, profile).
Elsewhere in the IPO market, Starbucks (SBUX: news, chart, profile) saw a successful debut of its IPO in Japan. See full story.
But other deals continue to dry up.
DealTime.com pulled its $50 million IPO with Robertson Stephens. The Israeli-based online shopping service filed its IPO in March of 2000.
Kintana also scrapped plans for a $70 million IPO with CS First Boston. Earlier this year, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based supply chain specialist secured $15 million in a round led by Camelot Ventures.
Centene files
St. Louis-based managed care specialist Centene Corp. filed to raise up to $58 million in an initial public offering with underwriters SG Cowen, Thomas Weisel Partners, and CIBC World Markets.
The company rang up $150.7 million and net income of $5.4 million in the first six months of the year, up from $101 million and net income of $2.4 million in the year-ago period.
Centene plans to list shares on Nasdaq under the symbol "CNTE."
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