Beacon Education Halts Initial Offering

Charter schools operator Beacon Education Management withdrew its planned initial public stock offering Tuesday, citing market conditions.

W.R. Hambrecht, the firm’s San Francisco-based investment banker, had twice pushed back the $33-million offering as investors’ interest in new stocks waned this year.

Beacon, of Westborough, Mass., had hoped to sell 2.2 million shares. The company manages 25 charter schools with a total 7,500 students.

William Hambrecht, founder of W.R. Hambrecht, owns 40% of Beacon personally.

Hambrecht isn’t a traditional underwriter. It sells IPOs via a Dutch auction, which is designed to get the maximum price for the company. That usually means the stock doesn’t soar once trading begins, because the market has set the IPO price, not the underwriter.