Investors flock to DigitalGlobe offering
The still-anemic market for initial public offerings got a boost after shares of satellite-imaging firm DigitalGlobe Inc. were priced above expectations and then surged 13% on their first day of trading Thursday.
The stock, priced late Wednesday at $19 a share, closed up $2.50 on Thursday at $21.50 a share. Early in the session it spiked as high as $25.
The Longmont, Colo., company provides satellite photography to the federal government and to commercial users including Google Inc.
The deal is just the fifth IPO in the U.S. market this year. The last one was from Rosetta Stone, a producer of self-study language programs. Rosetta went public at $18 a share April 15; it’s now trading around $22.
In a market starved for true growth opportunities, investors see one in the satellite-imagery business: The so-called remote sensing market is expected to grow from $7.3 billion in 2007 to $9.9 billion in 2012, according to a study that DigitalGlobe quotes in its prospectus.
The firm earned $54 million in 2008 on sales of $275 million.
The company had projected an IPO price of $16 to $18 a share, but its underwriters were able to get $19.
Of the 14.7 million shares sold in the deal, DigitalGlobe offered 1.3 million, raising about $25 million. The rest were sold by hedge funds and other investors that had backed the company.
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