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Markets > IPOs
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Medco IPO on tap...again
Only one new offering from specialty retailer Kirkland's Inc. to trade this week.
July 6, 2002: 9:38 AM EDT
By Luisa Beltran, CNN/Money Staff Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The new issue market this week will be more notable for those companies that chose to delay their initial public offerings, including Medco Health Solutions Inc., as they waited for a better market to go public.

Three of the four deals expected this week have either postponed or refiled their IPOs and some may choose to wait longer. The Nasdaq hit a five-year low earlier this week but then rebounded on Friday as investors reacted to a terror-free July 4 holiday. The Nasdaq, a barometer for new issues, on Friday closed up 68.19 to 1,448.36, or nearly 5 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average also snapped a six week losing streak, jumping 324.53, or about 3.6 percent, to 9,379.50.

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But this bounce is not expected to help new issues just yet.

"This is not a favorable climate for IPOs," said editor John Fitzgibbon of IPO Desktop. "The wind is against the IPO market."

The best deal this week comes from the only new IPO on the calendar. Kirkland's Inc., a specialty retailer of home decor products, sells items such as lamps, accent rugs and mirrors. The Jackson, Tenn.-based company, which was founded in 1966, sells the merchandise through 236 stores in 28 states.

"They are not a small company and have been around for a while," Fitzgibbon said, who has a two star rating on the IPO and expects it to gain by 50 cents to about $1.

Kirkland's plans to sell 7 million shares at $17 to $19 each via Merrill Lynch. The company is expected to price Wednesday and trade Thursday under the Nasdaq symbol KIRK.

Outside of Kirkland's, all the other IPOs have been lingering in registration as they wait for a more solid market.

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Medco IPO to price next week
  

Medco, a unit of Merck & Co., has postponed its planned offering twice as it waits for a good time to go public. The IPO had initially been slated to price June 27 but the company chose to delay until the following week while cutting its price range to $20 to $22 a share, down from $22 to $24.

On July 1, the Merck pharmacy benefits management unit decided to delay the IPO again and the deal is now expected to trade sometime this week, underwriters on the deal said. However, no firm date for the Medco pricing has been set.

Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Medco Health helps its 1,680 clients control costs by negotiating rebates and discounts from pharmaceutical manufacturers and retail pharmacies. Last year, Medco filled about 537 million prescriptions.

Accounting issues continue to dog the Merck unit. The Wall Street Journal reported June 21 that Medco may have inflated its revenue by $4.6 billion by recording co-payments from patients to pharmacies, and the accounting problems could hurt prospects for the IPO. Medco would have raised as much as $1.1 billion before the price cut last week.

Parent Merck now faces a class action lawsuit that alleges that the pharmaceutical firm and several of its officers improperly inflated revenue from its Medco unit.

Merck (MRK: Research, Estimates) will hold 80 percent of Medco after the offering but expects to shed its remaining stake in a tax-free transaction a year after the IPO, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Medco is on tap to price its deal sometime this week and expects to sell 46.7 million shares at $20 to $22 each via Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Medco will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MHS.

Fitzgibbon has a one star rating on the deal and expects it to gain by a quarter.

A healthy IPO

Prospects for HealtheTech Inc., which withdrew its planned offering June 21, are not bright. The company has refiled and now expects to go public this week.

This time around, the healthcare company, which makes monitoring devices for the weight-management and fitness market, has cut its price range and switched the book runner on the deal to UBS Warburg. Previously, Credit Suisse First Boston had held that spot.

HealtheTech now plans to sell 5 million shares at $9 to $11 each, down from $14 to $16 each, via UBS and CSFB. The company expects to trade Thursday under the Nasdaq symbol HETC.

"All you really have to know about how an IPO is going to do is in the pricing terms," Fitzgibbon said. "You cut it and that's it. Wall Street is very unforgiving."

Also waiting in the wings is the offering from Platinum Underwriters Holdings, the reinsurance unit of St. Paul Cos. The company operates through three subsidiaries: Platinum Underwriters Reinsurance Inc., Platinum Re Ltd. and Platinum Underwriters Bermuda Ltd.

After the IPO, St. Paul will own 15.3 percent of Platinum's outstanding shares and nearly 10 percent of voting power.

Platinum expects to sell 40 million shares at $23 via Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney. The IPO, which will trade under the New York Stock Exchange symbol PTP, is rated day-to-day, underwriters said Friday.  Top of page






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