Planet Fitness Sprints to Stock Markets

Posted on June 23, 2015June 23, 2015 by admin

Brokerdealer.com updates that Planet Fitness began a sprint toward the stock markets on Monday, filing for an initial public offering roughly two years after allying itself with a private equity firm.

Planet Fitness Inc. filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $100 million. With its filing, Planet Fitness, a low-cost gym chain, aims to become a publicly traded company in two months or so.

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Founded in its current form in 1992, the company was a pioneer in opening low-cost gyms meant to be friendlier to the average consumer rather than catering to hard-core fitness enthusiasts.Such was the company’s success that it eventually drew in as a partner the private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, a specialist in consumer brands.

Last year, Planet Fitness reported $37.3 million in profit on $279.8 million in revenue, both up from a year earlier. In the prospectus, Planet Fitness listed a preliminary $100 million fund-raising target, a figure meant to determine listing fees.

It will eventually trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PLNT.

Hong Kong Now Top 2 in IPOs

Posted on June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 by admin

The current hot market for IPOs (initial public offerings) now finds Hong Kong surpassing New York, and merely a few ticks below front-runner Shanghai for being the hottest centers for companies selling shares in new issue underwritings, according to the WSJ.

Red Star Macalline Group Corp priced its IPO in Hong Kong at the top of the range on June 19, raising HK$7.22bn ($931.34m) for the furniture retailer-cum-shopping mall owner that has been dubbed China’s answer to Ikea.

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The offering continues Hong Kong’s strong run as an IPO venue thanks to a stock-market boom. So far this year, Hong Kong ranks second globally as a venue for IPOs by value, behind Shanghai and ahead of New York, according to data from Dealogic.

The company secured US$330 million in orders from cornerstone investors, who agreed to buy and hold the shares for six months, including New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital, household appliances maker Gree Electric Appliances Inc., Shandong state-owned Asset Investment Holdings, China National Building Material and hedge fund BosValen Asset Management. It is scheduled to begin trading in Hong Kong on June 26.

If Legend’s listing takes place, it would be the year’s third-largest in Hong Kong after a US$4.5 billion listing by Chinese brokerage firm HTSC, better known as Huatai Securities, in May, and a US$4.1 billion IPO by GF Securities Co. in March.

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Under ‘Reg A’, Firms Ready to Raise Up to $50 mil

Posted on June 18, 2015June 18, 2015 by admin

Brokerdealer.com profiles that some entrepreneurs and business owners say they’re preparing to raise up to $50 million in capital from investors, without facing the legal costs and financial reporting requirements of going public, taking advantage of Reg A that kicks in Friday.

The rules stem from the 2012 JOBS Act, which was established to help fledgling companies raise capital to expand and create jobs. As of Friday, the rules raise the cap on the amount of equity a business can issue privately, under what’s known as “Reg A” to $50 million, from $5 million.

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In addition, they do away with a requirement for businesses raising more than $20 million to pay separate fees and file paperwork to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as regulators in every state where investors purchase shares. The offerings are open to mom-and-pop investors.

To find out how some small firms are looking forward to this new rule, read this WSJ article.

Wells Fargo Accused of ‘Due-Diligence’

Posted on June 17, 2015 by admin

A Wells Fargo Advisors client has asked arbitrators to recover money he says he lost investing with F-Squared Investments Inc., his lawyer said Wednesday, testing whether investors can challenge brokerage firms who sold the troubled asset manager’s products.

F-Squared agreed in December to pay $35 million to settle charges it made false claims about the performance of its flagship investment product. Now, an investor is demanding at least $100,000 in damages from Wells Fargo in a claim filed on Monday.

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If the case is successful, it will be the first major legal repercussion for a broker-dealer whose advisers sold F-Squared products. Wells Fargo first made F-Squared managed accounts available to its corps of 15,000 advisers in mid 2013. A Wells Fargo spokeswoman, Rachelle Rowe, declined to comment.

The 2015 Broker-Dealer Presidents Poll: What Independent BD leaders Really Think

Posted on June 1, 2015 by admin

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BrokerDealer.com update profiles ThinkAdvisor.com 5^th Annual survey of what independent BD presidents are really thinking…

For the fifth year, we asked the presidents of independent broker-dealers what’s on their minds.

Broker-dealer presidents are fierce competitors, and while they may cooperate in areas of advocacy—as they do notably as members of the Financial Services Institute—they all want nearly the same representatives. That’s their real business, after all: recruiting new reps, just as reps’ real business is recruiting new clients.

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For five years now, Investment Advisor has solicited independent broker-dealer leaders for their opinions on the challenges facing their firms, and the main challenges facing their reps, in both the shorter term and the longer term.

We present the findings of this year’s survey in the pages that follow, but with five years of data in our hands, we think we can discern a few patterns as well.

Here’s an example: Each year, we asked the presidents which association or organization best represented the IBD industry’s interests, especially in the nation’s capital. In the first few years, FSI was cited first by 80% of respondents, SIFMA and FINRA were in the high single digits and the FPA was even mentioned by 5% of the presidents. This year and last, however, the now 11-year-old FSI is in the high 80% range, while FPA was cited by exactly zero presidents. Other answers have changed over the past five years, and we invite you to visit ThinkAdvisor.com to see additional charts on what has changed in our Broker-Dealer Presidents Poll.

Questions posed:

1. What issue do you feel is the most challenging to your firm businesswise in the short term (next 18 months)?

2. What issue do you feel is the most challenging to your firm businesswise in the long term (next three to five years and beyond)?

3. What issue do you feel is the most challenging to individual reps in the short term (next 18 months)?

4. What issue do you feel is the most challenging to individual reps over the long term (next three to five years and beyond)?

5. Which industry association/entity do you feel is most essential to advancing your point of view, especially in Washington, D.C.?

6. Are you confident that the independent broker-dealer model will remain viable?

For the complete coverage from ThinkAdvisor.com, please click here