IPO Parade: Official Payments, NDS Group, Digital Impact, Telecorp set to debut
Among the giblets, gourds and yams of this week's IPO smorgasbord, Official Payments (Nasdaq: OPAY) could be one of the more popular offerings.
The company, which allows consumers to pay government taxes and fees electronically, will offer 5 million shares at $15, the top of their range of $13 to $15 a share. Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette is the lead underwriter for the offering, CIBC World Markets and DLJ direct are co-managers.
"This will do well, they've got a good business model," said Steven Tuen, director of research at IPO Value Monitor. Though the company's revenue is seasonal, with the bulk of it coming in April when most people pay their taxes, it is recurring. p>For the nine months ended September 30, Official Payments had net loss of $1.5 million on revenue of $ 7.2 million for 1999, compared to a loss of $308 000 on revenue of $1.4 million for the 1998 period.
The company, which provides payment services through its interactive telephone conduit is continuing to expand the availability of its Internet processes, the company said. Official Payments said the IRS currently accounts for 60 percent of its revenue, and warns that the loss of the IRS as a client would severely impact operating results.
NDS, News Corp.'s digital set-top box division, plans to sell nine million shares in the offering, which is underwritten by Morgan Stanley, and co-managed by Allen & Company and Merrill Lynch. The price range was originally $15-$17 per American Depositary Receipt (ADR).
NDS, previously known as News Digital Systems, provides set-top boxes for digital television that scramble content to stop unauthorized access and allow normal pay television and pay-per-view television. The company also designs broadcast control software needed to run a digital television broadcaster.
CS First Boston is the lead underwriter for the offering, Hambrecht & Quist and Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette are co-managers.
"This is yet another permission marketing based company," said Steven Tuen , of the IPO Value Monitor, who said it will likely fare similarly to Yesmail.com (Nasdaq: YESM), which is trading only marginally above its IPO price.
The company had revenue of $3.3 million for the six months ended Sept. 30, 1999, compared to just $121 000 for the 1998 period. Net loss for the 1999 six months was $8.8 million, versus $642 000 in the previous year.
Salomon Smith Barney is the deal's lead underwriter, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Banc Alex Brown are co-managers.
The company had revenue of $48.2 million for the nine months ended September 30,and net loss of $114 million for the period. As of September 30, TeleCorp had cumulative operating losses of about $199.1 million.
The company said it depends on its agreements with AT&T for success, and its roaming rates with AT&T will decline over time. It is At&T's largest wireless affiliate in the south-central and north eastern states.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.