Monday, Sep. 21, 2009
Talecris joins crowd of stock offerings
RTP firm hopes to raise $894 million as it prepares a stock offering
As Talecris Biotherapeutics prepares to test the waters on Wall Street, its top executives will be watching others who dive in first.
This week is expected to be a busy one for IPOs, with eight companies looking to raise $3.7 billion. That would be the most IPO activity during a single week in nearly two years.
If they succeed, it could bode well for Talecris, which is scheduled to go public on Sept. 30. If they sputter, it could force Talecris to delay or reduce its proposed offering.
Talecris officials last week began courting big Wall Street investors to sell its proposed IPO, a process known as the "road show." The Research Triangle Park company, which makes medicines from blood plasma at a massive Clayton plant, plans to raise up to $894 million selling 44.7 million shares at $18 to $20 each.
IPOs fell out of favor for the past 18 months, as the stock market slumped and Wall Street investors lost appetite for risky, unproven companies.
So far this year, only 22 U.S. companies have successfully gone public, according to Renaissance Capital, a Greenwich, Conn., research firm. Last year the total was 43, down from 272 in 2007.
But since stocks have surged from March lows, private companies are hoping that hunger for IPOs will revive.
"The IPO market has windows that open and close, and right now the window is open to get deals done," Sal Morreale, with investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, told The Associated Press.
The companies preparing IPOs for this week include Shanda Games Ltd., a spinoff of a Chinese online game developer; Foursquare Capital, a mortgage real-estate investment trust; and Vitacost.com, an online retailer of vitamins and other health products.
The good news for Talecris: It's an established company with real products and revenue. It's also a profitable biotechnology company, which should appeal to investors, said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOScoop.com. There have not been any biotech IPOs this year, he said.
"This one looks like a go," he added.
Unless the IPO window slams shut, there are other big companies waiting for their turn to jump in, including Dole Food, Dollar General and Hyatt Hotels.
