A hard lesson Thursday for Ottawa's Mitel as it went public on the New York Nasdaq exchange.
The company dramatically lowered its opening share price from the expected $18- to $22- range and offered a price of $14.
When trading began the stock was listed at $12.75. It started to rise, but by the day's end the stock had fallen 12 per cent, closing at $12.30.
There was heavy trading; nearly six million shares traded hands.
This means Mitel raised $147 million versus the $200 million plus it was hoping for. The company says trading rules do not allow them to comment on the some 25 per cent drop in what they had hoped to raise and the implications for paying down debt to improve their financial situation.
In 2006, Mitel backed out of plans to go public when the market went soft.
At the time, owner Terry Matthews said he was very down on American stock markets because of a raft of rules that he felt did not ensure better protection for stock holders – just more work for companies.
Some analysts had predicted that at $18 to $20, Mitel would be overvalued. It appears they were right.
Another factor was that Mitel's IPO comes during the busiest day for IPOs in nearly three years.
In all, three tech companies and three other firms started trading and Mitel had been seeking a very high asking price.
A spokesperson at the nasdaq told CTV Ottawa it was up to the company to pick the time it wanted to start trading.
