PARIS — Satellite fleet operator Intelsat’s initial public offering of stock fell short of its intended mark April 17, with the company forced to reduce the per-share price to $18 per common share.
Luxembourg- and Washington-based Intelsat said in an April 18 statement that the IPO, on the New York Stock Exchange, sold 19.32 million shares. After deducting for the costs of its all-star underwriting team, the company said it netted $328.8 million.
Intelsat sold 3 million preferred shares at $50 apiece, netting another $142.9 million, bringing the IPO’s post-expenses total to $471.7 million.
The preferred shares return an annual interest of 5.75 percent through May 2016, at which time they will convert to common shares.
Intelsat had originally hoped for an IPO of some $1.75 billion before scaling it back to $750 million. The latest scenario had called for 21.7 million shares to be introduced at between $21 and $25 per share.
Aside from the fact that this has been a turbulent week on Wall Street with a background of terrorist concerns and Chinese growth rates, the Intelsat IPO appears to have suffered from investor concerns about the company’s anemic growth rates in the past couple of years, and its nearly $16 billion in debt.
