Grand Canyon Staggers in Debut

by Ken Schachter on 20 November 2008, 12:19

Categories: Archives - Computers - General news - Finance
Topics: ipo , initial public offering , Rackspace , Grand Canyon Education

 
Shares of Grand Canyon Education slid $0.23, or 2 percent, to $11.77 Thursday after the online college staged the first U.S. initial public offering since August.

Grand Canyon twice cut its price range in order to complete the 10.5 million share deal, ultimately pricing at $12 and raising $126 million.

The Phoenix-based school, which began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol "LOPE," used 75 percent of gross proceeds to pay a special distribution to pre-IPO stockholders. Grand Canyon's backers include Endeavour Capital and Significant Partners.

The IPO, underwritten by bankers led by Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch, originally had been priced at $18 to $20 per share.

Before the Grand Canyon deal, 117 U.S. IPOs priced in 2008, 75.9 percent less than at the same time in 2007, according to Renaissance Capital.


Until Grand Canyon, the last company to stage a U.S. IPO was Rackspace Hosting in August.