New 144A market develops

About a month ago I covered the story surrounding the underdeveloped 144A market. For those who aren't familiar with the 144A market, it is basically a means for companies to take equity investors without formally coming public. This is an interesting way to gain equity investors because it doesn't require the expensive and complex filings and disclosure required to come public to the general investing population.

An article appeared in today's Financial Times that serves as an interesting follow-up to my July 23 post. A new system known as the Open Platform for Unregistered Securities (OPUS) has huge backers such as Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER). Interestingly, Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) unrolled its own 144A system called Best Markets on Tuesday.

Clearly the 144A was an extremely lucrative area for Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) because of all the competition its original marketplace is now generating. One has to begin wondering: will more companies now choose to come private via the 144A market only to privileged investors rather than formally IPO'ing to all investors? With less regulation and lower costs, it certainly seems like a possibility...