4:50 PM New York – Niska Gas Storage Partners LLC declined 7% on its first day of trading after it priced shares at $20.50 per unit. The natural gas storage and trading company raised $360 million.

Niska Gas Storage Partners LLC completed its initial public offering of 17.50 million common units at $20.50 per unit, within its previously expected range of $19.00 to $21.00 per unit but at the low end of the range.

The units opened for trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the ticker symbol NKA and dropped 6.8% to close at $19.10.

The underwriters have the option to purchase additional 2.63 million common units, at the same price, to cover over-allotments, if any. The company is controlled by Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings LLC and will control 74% of the company after the offering.

The gas storage company has facilities in Alberta, Canada, Oklahoma and California and also trades in gas futures on its own account. The proprietary trading activities generated 32% of the company revenues in 2009.

The partnership is designed to avoid taxation at corporate level and pay dividend of 6.8% to new investors.

Niska said that it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay borrowings under its revolving credit facility and the remainder for general company purposes, including funding a portion of the cost of its expansion projects.

In other IPO news, China based MIE Holdings Corp canceled its public offering to raise $96 million that was expected to be priced between $7 and $8 a share and Kingtone Wireless Solution Holding Ltd cuts its offering size by 25% to $24 million.