96 initial public offerings have been priced so far this year as of June 16, 2006:

- 43 IPOs are currently trading above initial offering price;
- 51 are trading below the offering price;
- and 2 are trading at their offer price.

Six IPOs were priced during the week of June 12th, 2006. There are four deals scheduled to be priced during the coming week, hoping to raise more than $1 billion.

IPO PERFORMANCE

ADVANCERS:

VeraSun Energy Corporation (VSE: chart) priced its initial public offering of 18.25 million shares of its common stock at $23 per share on Wednesday. The IPO price came above the expected range of $21 - $22 a share and raised about $420 million.

Of all the shares, the company was selling 11 million while selling shareholders were selling 7.25 million shares.

In addition, certain of the selling shareholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2.7 million additional shares at the initial public offering price.

Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers were the lead managers of this offering, with A.G. Edwards was serving as the co-manager.

VeraSun Energy is the second largest ethanol producer in the U.S. based on production capacity, behind agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM: chart). The company has two operational production facilities in Aurora, South Dakota and Fort Dodge, Iowa and is constructing a third facility in Charles City, Iowa.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to finance a portion of the construction costs of two additional ethanol production facilities in the upper Midwest, with the balance expected to come from cash-on-hand and cash generated from operations during the construction period.

VeraSun's total revenue has been growing steadily in recent years, more than doubling to $110.7 million in the first quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. Net income rose 62% to $2.7 million during the same period.

The company’s shares closed at $25.25 on Friday, up 9.8% from the initial offering price.

Houston Wire & Cable Co. (HWCC: chart) priced an initial public offering worth $110.5 million on Wednesday, at the midpoint of the forecast range.

The 8.5 million share offering, which represents about 41% of the company, sold for $13 a share, compared with a forecast of between $12 - $14 per share.

The company issued 4.25 million shares, while existing company stockholders offered the remaining 4.25 million shares.

William Blair and Robert W Baird were the lead underwriters on the deal.

Houston Wire is a distributor of specialty wire and cable and related services in the United States. This is the company''s second IPO. It went public in 1987 before being acquired two years later by Alltel Corp. (AT: chart). In 1997, the company was acquired by private equity specialist Code Hennessy & Simmons LLC, which is selling part of its stake in the company in the IPO.

The company’s shares closed at $15.37 on Friday, up 18.2% from the initial offering price.

The public offering of Verigy Ltd. (VRGY: chart) was priced at $15 a share on Wednesday, below the forecasted range of $16 - $18 per share.

The 8.5 million share offering was worth $127.5 million.