Dennis, here's a play that might be intriguing...
Thursday, January 28, 1999
LOCAL BUSINESS
Thursday 28 January 1999
Another Newbridge affiliate to go public
Bert Hill
The Ottawa Citizen
Tundra Semiconductor Corp. will go public with a share offering that puts the value of the company $20 million higher than many analysts were expecting a month ago.
In response to strong interest from the investment community, Tundra said yesterday it is pricing the initial public offering at $9.25 a share, at the high end of the anticipated range for the 5.4-million-share offering. That puts the total market value of the Kanata-based chip-design firm at $120 million and will raise $50 million for Tundra and its major investors.
Tundra president Adam Chowaniec said the company picked the price because the market has reacted positively to the first major offering of a new stock issue since a slump in stock market prices late last year.
Investors will get a chance Feb. 8 to determine the market value of the shares when they start trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Tundra will get $34 million to finance its activities before brokerage and legal expenses. Newbridge Networks, which currently owns 37 per cent of the affiliated company, plans to reduce its holdings to about 16 per cent. It will get $15 million before brokerage and legal expenses.
Other major shareholders are the Vengrowth Investment Fund of Toronto with about 14 per cent and employees, directors and senior offices with about about 10 per cent.
Mr. Chowaniec said the company will use net funds of about $31 million to finance research and development of the custom wafers it designs, to acquire licences and for possible future acquisitions.
Tundra designs chips used to network products in telecommunications, wireless and data communications, defence and industrial automation. It also moving aggressively into embedded chips used increasingly in a wide range of products.
Tundra is the second Newbridge affiliate to go public. CrossKeys Systems Corp. went public in 1997 with an offering of 2.9 million shares at $14.95 each.
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