WWW - Posts tagged Aei at BloggingStocks

aei posts

Hyatt and Ancestry.com IPOs: Beginners' luck?

Posted Nov 6th 2009 9:40AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, NYSE Euronext (NYX), News Corp'B' (NWS), Initial Public Offerings

The IPO market has been pretty slow for the past two years due to the effects of a subprime mortgage crisis that turned into a credit crisis that turned into a worldwide financial crisis and recession. Nonetheless, two companies made their debuts Thursday -- one on the NYSE (NYSE: NYX), the other on the NASDAQ -- and they nailed it. Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H) gave its investors a 12% gain on its first Big Board trading day, and Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM) switched those digits, jumping 21% in its first day of trading.

Hyatt Hotels overcame two major concerns. The worldwide travel market slump has been tough on hotel companies, and Hyatt has been subject to the same forces as everyone else. Also, investors may have been worried about infighting among the founder's heirs (the Pritzker family), but the double-digit price increase suggests that investors don't foresee Bancroft-style squabbles screwing investors -- or, if you don't like Dow Jones, now a part of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS), Playboy (NYSE: PLA) makes the same point.

Continue reading Hyatt and Ancestry.com IPOs: Beginners' luck?

IPOs getting a buzz kill?

Posted Nov 2nd 2009 4:30PM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: Private Equity, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)

Going into the summer, it looked like the IPO market was poised for a resurgence. For example, the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) said that it planned on taking eight companies public.

Despite the enthusiasm, things haven't panned out. According to the Wall Street Journal [a paid publication], five of the last nine deals for October priced below their ranges. In fact, last week AEI wasn't even able to pull off its offering.

Continue reading IPOs getting a buzz kill?