For the week ending May 28, 2004, investment bankers priced seven IPOs, which raised almost $3.1 billion. Bankers had planned to price eight IPOs to raise slightly over $3.6 billion. One deal didn’t make it to market. But the seven IPOs that did get done were all priced below their initial filing ranges. As a result, none were barnburners in the aftermarket.

Last week’s opening-day aftermarket performances ranged from a gain of 13.6 percent to a loss of 4.3 percent. The average opening-day gain per last week’s IPO was up 4.21 percent. This compared with an average opening-day gain for all of 2004’s IPOs of up 15.1 percent.
That’s what happens when deals get cut in price.

The week’s best performer:
AngioDynamics (ANGO: chart), a Queensbury, New York-based provider of medical devices used in minimally invasive, image-guided procedures to treat peripheral vascular disease, priced its IPO of 1.95 million shares at $11 each, down from an initial filing range of $12 to $14 a share. The IPO opened at $11.54 a share on Thursday, May 27, 2004, and closed its opening day at $12.50 a share. It closed Friday, May 28, 2004, at $14.18 a share -- up 28.9 percent from its initial offering price.

The week’s poorest performer:
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (ACAD: chart), a San Diego, California-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery of small-molecule drugs to treat central nervous system disorders, priced its IPO of 5 million shares at $7 each, down from an initial filing range of $12 to $14 a share. The IPO opened at $7.44 a share on Thursday, May 27, 2004, and closed its opening day at $6.70 a share. It closed Friday, May 28, 2004, at $6.61 a share –- down 5.57 percent from its initial offering price.

The week’s blockbuster:
Genworth Financial (GNW: chart) was last week’s high-profile IPO. Based in Richmond, Virginia, Genworth is a newly formed insurance company. All the proceeds of the Genworth IPO will go to GE Financial Assurance Holdings, an indirect subsidiary of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). Genworth priced its IPO of 145 million shares at $19.50 each to raise $2.83 billion. The deal was priced below its initial filing range of $21 to $23 a share. The IPO opened at $18.75 a share on Tuesday, May 25, 2004, and closed its opening day at $19.50a share. It closed Friday, May 28, 2004, at $19.50 a share –- unchanged from its initial offering price.

The most IPOs from a single industrial sector:
There were four pharmaceutical IPOs on last week’s calendar. Each deal followed the path of the recent pharmaceutical companies going public. All cut their proposed offering prices. Three of those four discounted IPOs got priced. They were: ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY: chart) and Critical Therapeutics (CRTX: chart). Each of these IPOs struggled in the aftermarket.

The other IPO from the pharmaceutical sector was Inhibitex (Nasdaq INHX proposed). It was also cut in price. But the deal was rescheduled for this coming week.

For the final week of May, investment bankers priced seven deals. That is a good showing by recent standards. The last time more deals came to market during a week was for the week ending Feb. 6, 2004. Investment bankers priced 12 IPOs then.

Scorecard for the week ending May 28, 2004 (as of Friday’s close):
·IPOs priced: 7
·Up: 4
·Down: 1
·Unchanged: 2
·Average gain: Up 6.05 percent.

Year to date (From Jan. 1, 2004 through May 28, 2004) (as of Friday’s close):

·IPOs priced: 65 (excluding three unit offerings consisting of common stock and warrants)
·Up: 39
·Down: 23
·Unchanged: 3
·Average gain: Up 13.87 percent

That’s not a bad showing when compared with the Nasdaq Composite Index, the barometer of the IPO market. The Nasdaq closed Friday, May 28, 2004, at 1,986.74, down 0.8 percent from its close of 2,003.37 on Dec. 31, 2003.

Set aside for a moment the fact that investors’ interest in IPOs was only mild last week. Now look again at that average gain of up 6.05 percent in the aftermarket for last week’s IPOs. That’s not bad at all, is it?

The bottom line: Bankers did their jobs. They raised $3.1 billion in capital for the seven companies they took public. In instances when art imitates life, that trend would mean more Hollywood stories would have a happy ending – just like this one.