MEMC Shares Up; SunPower Boosts IPO Price
Tuesday November 15, 1:48 pm ET
MEMC Electronic Materials Shares Jump 4.3 Percent After SunPower Increases IPO Price
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of wafer manufacturer MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. rose nearly 5 percent in afternoon trading, after solar cell maker SunPower Corp. raised the range of its initial public offering price.
MEMC Electronic shares were trading up 89 cents, or 4.3 percent, at $21.42 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the past 12 months, shares of the firm have traded in a band of $10.03 to $23.75.
St. Peters, Mo.-based MEMC Electronic sells wafers to the solar market at an annual rate of $100 million.
SunPower Corp., a maker of solar equipment owned by Cypress Semiconductor Corp., raised its expected share price on its 7.7 million share offering to between $16 and $18, up from a prior range of $12 to $14, and MEMC shares may have spiked in sympathy, according to UBS Securities analyst Stephen Chin.
"There's also another driving force out there," Chin said. "MEMC has a large shareholder called Texas Pacific Group -- they own about 25 percent of outstanding shares. Tomorrow they can sell shares, but there's a general feeling that they're not going to sell."
Texas Pacific Group, an investor group that includes TPG Wafer Holdings, owns 24.2 percent of outstanding stock, or 50.9 million MEMC shares, worth an estimated $1.04 billion, according to Lionshares.com.
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