New York, January 3: The record-breaking IPO boom of 1999, which helped the US stock market break one record after another, created treasure troves for the issuers and the underwriters that helped the companies go public.A record $74 billion was raised through 511 initial public stock offerings in 1999, with new issues posting an average first-day gain of 68.3 per cent. By comparison, no year before 1999 can lay claim to an average 30 per cent first-day gain for IPOs, according to orldFinanceNet.com.
Not surprisingly, the deals contributing to the huge after-market gains were involved in the explosive arena of business-to-business Internet commerce.
Internet Capital Group Inc., which invests in electronic commerce firms, topped the list of best-performing IPOs in 1999 based on after-market performance. It finished the year trading at 170, a gain of more than 5,700 per cent from its offer price of $12. The calculation included the company's 2-for-1 stock split, according to Thomson Financial Securities Data.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.