New IPO Aims To Make Investors FIT

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Fitbit

Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles the newest IPO filing that has many investors excited. Fitbit has filed for IPO just months after Bloomberg’s Leslie Picker reported that Fitbit would IPO this year. Fitbit is known for its products of the same name, which are activity trackers, wireless-enabled wearable devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, quality of sleep and other personal metrics. Fitbits are so popular that even US President Obama is wearing one. The company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FIT. This brokerdealer.com IPO blog update is courtesy of CNBC’s article, “Fitbit files for initial public offering” by Nana Sidibe. Below is an excerpt from the article.

The sport tracker company Fitbit filed Thursday for an IPO of up to $100 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Major underwriters of the company, which will trade on the NYSE under the ticker FIT, include Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the S-1 filing revealed.

Investors in Fitbit include Qualcomm Ventures and SoftBank Capital, according to the company’s official website.

The number of shares and price haven’t been disclosed yet. Fitbit gave no specific plan for the proceeds from the IPO.

In its SEC filing, Fitbit stated that it will need to expand its online growth through Amazon.com, which along with Best Buy, is an official retailer.

To read more about this exciting new filing, click here.

Brombardier’s IPO Hope To Demonstrate Company’s Real Value

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Brokerdealer.com blog update profiling Brombardier’s plan to launch an IPO for its train unit. Bombardier is a Canadian multinational aerospace and transportation company, founded by Joseph-Armand Bombardier. This will push the company into an even better finacial postion after it raised $3 billion earlier this year.  They also hope by launching this IPO they can demonstrate the strength the rail unit has after its valuation suffered from being paired with the struggling aerospace division. This update is courtesy of the Wall Street Journal’s article, “Bombardier Plans IPO for Transportation Unit” by Ben Dummett, with an excerpt from the article below.

Bombardier Inc. said Thursday it was preparing to spin off a minority stake in its train business, a move that would create another big publicly traded train maker in Europe while helping the Canadian company to shore up its balance sheet as it continues to work on bringing its troubled CSeries jet to market.

The planned initial public offering of Bombardier Transportation marks Chief Executive Alain Bellemare’s first strategic move since Bombardier tapped the former United Technologies Corp. executive in February to help revive its fortunes. Bombardier has bet much of its future growth on its new CSeries commercial jet, but costly delays have delayed the aircraft’s launch, prompting the management shakeup and a strategic review of operations to generate efficiencies.

Family-controlled Bombardier plans to sell a minority stake in Bombardier Transportation in an IPO in the fourth quarter, and list the shares in Germany where the business is based. The business would compete for investor attention with two other listed train makers in Europe: Germany’s Siemens AG and France’s Alstom S.A.

The sale will enable Montreal-based Bombardier, meanwhile, to further bolster its financial position after it raised about $3 billion earlier this year from an issue of new debt and equity. An IPO would also, the company hopes, demonstrate the rail unit’s real value. The business’s valuation has suffered because it is paired with the struggling aerospace division.

To continue reading about this IPO, which will be launched in Germany, click here.

Industry’s Largest Firm, LPL Financial, Hit With Huge Fine

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lplfinancial

Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles Finra hitting LPL Financial, the industry’s largest independent brokerdealer firm, with a huge fine. The firm reportedly failed to properly supervise sales of complex products, such as ETFs, variable annuities and non-traded REITs. In addition to paying a fine to Finra, LPL Financial will also have to pay a substantial amount of restitution to certain customers who purchased non-traditional ETFs, and may pay additional compensation to ETF purchasers following an additional review of its ETF systems and procedures. This update is courtesy of InvestmentNews’ article, “LPL Financial fined $11.7 million for ‘widespread supervisory failures‘”, with an excerpt from the article below.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. ordered LPL Financial to pay $11.7 million in fines and restitution for what it deemed “widespread supervisory failures” related to sales of complex products, according to a settlement letter released Wednesday.

From 2007 to as recently as April, LPL failed to properly supervise sales of certain investments, including certain exchange-traded funds, variable annuities and nontraded real estate investment trusts, and also failed to properly deliver more than 14 million trade confirmations to customers, according to Finra.

LPL, for example, did not have a system in place to monitor the length of time customers held securities in their accounts or to enforce limits on concentrations of those complex products in customer accounts, Finra said.

The systems that LPL had in place to review trading activity in customer accounts were plagued by “multiple deficiencies,” Finra said. The firm failed to generate proper anti-money laundering alerts, for instance, and did not deliver trade confirmations in 67,000 customer accounts, according to the settlement letter.

To continue reading about the industry’s largest independent broker-dealer firm’s huge fines from Finra, click here.

On The Menu This Week: Bojangles IPO Launches On Friday

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Bojangles

About a month ago, Brokerdealer.com’s blog update covered the southern comfort fast food chain based out of North Carolina, Bojangles, announcement that it would be going public with an IPO after 38 years. On Friday, May 8,2015, Bojangles will officially launch its IPO under the ticker BOJA on the NASDAQ. There are several other IPOs coming out on the menu this week ranging in a wide variety of industries, but Bojangles has set itself apart from the rest.

To learn what sets Bojangles apart from the rest continue reading below and then contact a brokerdealer to invest in this hot new IPO yourself. 

This brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of Benzinga’s article, “IPO Outlook: Down-Home Cookin’, Fast-Casual Bojangles’ Sizzles Investors“, with an excerpt below. 

To say it’s a jam-packed week for the IPO market is an understatement. With twelve IPOs scheduled – ranging from biotechs, REITs, MLPs and a hot restaurant – investors have quite a menu to choose from.

Southeastern restaurant chain Bojangles’ Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: BOJA) plans to raise $122 million through 6.3 million shares expecting to price between $15 and $17 on Friday.

Bojangles’ will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker BOJA.

It’s Bo Time

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bojangles’ joins the other fast-casual restaurants that recently tapped the public markets due to both consumer and investor strong enthusiasm.

The company started in 1977 with a menu centered on “chicken ‘n biscuits” and since has remained relatively unchanged. To put it in context, Bojangles’s is the chicken joint to the Southern realm eateries what Shake Shack Inc SHAK 1.52% is to the burger space in metropolitan areas.

What Makes The ‘Bo Difference’

The company has what it calls the “Bo Difference,” allowing it to grow profits and create a loyal customer base. Its self-described high quality, tasty Southern food is characterized by breakfast biscuits, never frozen bone-in fried chicken, dirty rice, sandwiches, wraps, unique fixin’s, legendary iced tea and its Bo Smart menu.

Bojangles’ five meal offerings include breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and after dinner. Its decision to serve breakfast all day, every day, gives it an edge over its competitors that typically serve breakfast for a limited time or start service with lunch. This edge has paid off as Bojangles’ says in its S-1 that it generates 38 percent of its revenue from 11 a.m. to closing (typically 11 p.m.), or $650,000 on average just from breakfast alone.

To continue reading about this sizzling southern IPO, click here.

 

Australia’s IPO Listing Is Complete Opposite From One Year Ago

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Australian IPOs

Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles the low number of IPOs Australia has produced. After a record setting year in 2014, Australia’s list of IPOs has dropped dramatically. An article from DNA India’s titled “After record IPO year, Australian listings shrink to almost nothing“, highlights several possibilities as to why the drop in IPOs could be. An excerpt from the article is below.

Australian IPOs have virtually dried up after a record year, taking their cue from a subdued stock market as investors fret about the country’s commodities bust and China’s weakening economy.

After an unprecedented $15 billion of initial public offerings last year, companies raised $327 million in January-to-March, Thomson Reuters data shows. That’s down 96% from a year earlier and a fraction of the $7.5 billion
in the previous quarter. The drop-off reflects the skittish mood in Australian equities. While the market bounced 7% in January following a weak 2014 finish, it has since failed to make headway as investors shrug off record low
interest rates and watch the all-important iron ore price sink.

The average size of an IPO in the March quarter was $30 million, down from $270 million in the December quarter and $100 million a year earlier. Last year, many private equity firms offloaded assets they had held since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. This year has been marked by just one big listing and a spate of tiny IPOs by small companies. “We’ve had a very long bull market since the bottom in ’08, and we find it hard to find value,” said Geoff Wilson, chairman of Wilson Asset Management, which bought shares in Monday’s market debutant MYOB.

To continue reading about the fall in Australian IPOs, click here.