Virgin America Flies High With IPO; Investors Touched For The Very First Time

Posted on November 16, 2014 by admin

Shares of the Discount Airline Close at $30, Up 30% from the IPO Price

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from WSJ. A complete directory of brokerdealers who participated in underwriting the airline industry’s first initial public offering in quite a while can be found via the brokerdealer.com database.

Virgin America Inc. took off Friday, as shares of the discount airline rose more than 30% in their market debut.

The stock, which began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “VA,” closed at $30, giving the company a market value of about $1.3 billion. Earlier Friday, shares opened at $27 and hit a high of $31.19. Virgin America’s initial public offering of about 13.3 million shares was priced at $23 each, at the higher end of the carrier’s initial range of $21 to $24 a share and valuing the Burlingame, Calif., company at $994 million. The first-day pop exceeds the average 13% gain IPOs have notched so far this year according to IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital.

Virgin America currently has a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.

Following the IPO, Virgin America expects to have about 43.2 million shares in total, leaving Cyrus Capital Partners LP and Virgin Group Ltd. as the company’s largest shareholders.

PAR Investment Partners LP has agreed separately to purchase 2.3 million shares for about 96% of the IPO price, or about $50 million, from the controlling shareholders in a private placement. The IPO is expected to raise about $220 million in net proceeds, which Virgin America said it plans to use for working capital, sales and marketing, and capital expenditures. Selling shareholders won’t receive any proceeds.

For the full story from WSJ, please click here

BrokerDealers Drill for Gushers in Middle East: Equity Stake Exports to Surpass Oil

Posted on November 12, 2014November 12, 2014 by admin

Arab Spring Comes to Saudi Stock Mart; BlackRock Leads ETF Charge in Advance of Doors Opening to Foreign Investors; Country’s Largest Bank Raises $6bil in Region’s Biggest IPO

BrokerDealer.com blog update includes extracts from Bloomberg LP reports by Arif Sharif and Sarmad Khan.

Based on recent developments, global investors are now slated to drill for stakes in Saudi Bourse offerings thanks to yesterday’s announcement from ETF behemoth BlackRock, coupled with the next year’s scheduled opening of markets to foreign investors, whose appetite for stakes in Middle East companies is expected to surpass demand for oil, currently the country’s primary export.

Excerpt below courtesy of Bloomberg LP reporting by Arif Sharif

BlackRock Inc. (BLK) plans to start an exchange-traded fund for Saudi Arabian shares as the biggest Arab bourse prepares to open its market to foreigners.

The world’s largest money manager has sought approval for its iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia Capped ETF from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, according to a filing posted on the SEC’s website. The fund will seek to track the results of an MSCI provisional Saudi Arabia index, according to the filing.

“The underlying index is designed to measure the potential equity market in Saudi Arabia, should the market open up to foreign investors,” the filing said. The index “may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies and components primarily include financials, materials and telecommunications companies,” it said.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of crude oil, is preparing to open its $526 billion stock exchange to foreign investors next year. Foreigners currently can’t buy Saudi-listed shares directly, accessing the market through equity swaps and exchange-traded funds instead.

The full story from Bloomberg LP is here

Saudi Arabia’s NCB Rises 10% in Trade Debut After $6 Billion IPO

Reporting courtesy of Sarmad Khan, Bloomberg LP

National Commercial Bank jumped the most allowed on its trading debut after raising $6 billion in the Middle East’s largest share sale.

Shares of Saudi Arabia’s largest bank by assets climbed 10 percent to 49.5 riyals at 12:31 p.m. in Riyadh. The Tadawul All Share Index (SASEIDX), the kingdom’s main measure, gained 0.2 percent.

IPOs in Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy, are picking up as the Tadawul All Share Index plans to open to foreign investors next year as it pursues a $130 billion spending plan to boost non-energy industries. Saudi Arabia typically sells stakes in state-owned companies to the public at below market value as part of efforts to redistribute the country’s wealth.

“For a couple of days at least, or may be three, you will see the stock going limit up,” Saleem Khokhar, head of equities at NBAD Asset Management Group, which oversees about $2.5 billion, said by phone from Abu Dhabi. “It started trading at discount and anything between 50 riyals and 55 riyals is very good value, so you will see investors rushing to grab what’s available.”

National Commercial Bank (NCB) sold a 25 percent stake at 45 riyals a share, attracting 311 billion riyals ($83 billion) of bids for the 300 million shares offered to Saudi investors. It sold another 200 million shares to the nation’s pension fund. The IPO was the second-biggest this year globally after Chinese e-commerce business Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.’s $25 billion offering, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Electrical Industries Co. is the latest Saudi company to announce plans for a share sale.

Before the regulator set a limit on daily price moves, offerings surged on their first day of trading. Alinma Bank (ALINMA), a Shariah-compliant lender based in Riyadh, soared 60 percent when it started trading in June 2008, and Saudi Arabian Mining Co. jumped 53 percent in its debut the following month.

To continue reading this story from Bloomberg LP, click here

Israel-based Deal Activity Inspires Bankers & BrokerDealers

Posted on October 29, 2014 by admin

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from Oct 27 edition of MarketsMedia.com

Investing in Israel: More Than Technology

When it comes to investing in Israel, technology is a big part of the story, but it isn’t the only story, according to Steven Schoenfeld, chief investment officer of BlueStar Global Investors.

“Israel is actually a multifaceted story,” Schoenfeld said last week in a panel discussion on the TA-25 Index. “Israel’s tech economy, particularly with the publication of the book Start-up Nation, is the sexier part of Israel, and especially because you see so many of those tech companies coming to list in the New York, that’s a big part of the economy. But, in fact, even if you include all of those tech companies, it’s only about 30 to 35% of Israel’s market cap.”

BlueStar specializes in the Israeli capital markets. Its mission is to develop investment strategies that provide global institutional and retail investors efficient access to the full range of Israeli asset classes.

Its flagship product is the BlueStar Israel Global Index, a benchmark designed for providing balanced sector exposure to Israel’s dynamic economy. The index is designed to serve as an asset allocation tool, a performance benchmark, and the basis for investment products. Continue reading →

Dubai Hotel Company Plans To Go Public: BrokerDealer IPO news

Posted on September 29, 2014 by admin

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of Bloomberg LP extract:

Emaar Properties PJSC (EMAAR), Dubai’s only listed developer to survive the property crash without an annual loss, plans to sell shares in its hotel business after its malls unit became the emirate’s biggest public offering since 2007.

The company will announce the hotel sale “in the next few months,” Chairman Mohamed Alabbar said at a conference in Dubai today, less than seven hours after Emaar said it raised $1.6 billion from the share sale of its malls unit. Alabbar declined to provide more details on the IPO.

These companies “reflect the true contributing sectors of Dubai’s economy,” Tariq Qaqish, head of asset management at Dubai-based Al Mal Capital PSC, said by phone from Dubai. Because of high occupancy levels and “proximity to malls, Emaar Hotels translates to solid revenue per room,” he said.

For information regarding brokerdealers within the Middle East, BrokerDealer.com global database is one click away..

More Than Half of VC-Backed Start-ups Valued at $1Bil+ are B2B

Posted on June 2, 2014June 2, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog update is courtesy of this a.m.’s WSJ CIO Journal and reporter Rachel King: For companies who aspire to the same success as the biggest and best, selecting the right investment banker and broker-dealer can mean the difference between greatness and simply a great idea (that never made it..) The brokerdealer.com database can help entrepreneurs source and locate bankers, licensed investment brokers and qualified investors across the globe.

Twenty of 35 VC-backed startups valued at $1 billion or more are business-to-business companies, including Dropbox Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc. and Cloudera Inc. That’s a higher percentage of B2B startups than during the dot-com bubble years of 1999 and 2000. For some of these startups, the high valuations can help inspire confidence with prospective corporate customers. For others, the overall rise in valuations is reminiscent of previous instances of collective — and misplaced — euphoria. “I’m not worried,” Karim Faris, general partner at Google Ventures, tells CIO Journal. “There’s a lot more meat to the bone this time around than there was in 1999.” The WSJ CIO Journal full list of $1B+ startups is in this article.)