IPO Wrap: More VC-Backed Deals To Come

With the year-end IPO calendar coming into clearer focus, it looks like there will be at least five more venture-backed offerings in 2001.

Of the 80 IPOs that have priced so far this year, only 37 have been venture-backed. The most recent was Magma Design Automation Inc. (NNM:LAVA), a semiconductor chipset company which last received funding July 31, a $25 million funding round from eight private equity investors.

Today, Magma priced 4.85 million shares at $13.00, for a total take of $63.05 million via lead underwriter Credit Suisse First Boston. The company yesterday increased its number of shares offered from $4 million, and its offering price range to $11 to $12 per share from $9 to $11 per share. It begins trading on the Nasdaq today.

On tap for the week of Dec. 3 is Lawson Software Inc. (Proposed NNM:LWSN), a maker of customer relationship planning software, which plans to raise $208 million via a Lehman Brothers managed deal. TA Associates and St. Paul Venture Capital contributed to Lawson’s sole round of financing in February.

Also for the week of Dec. 3 is Bruker AXS (Proposed NNM:BAXS), a developer of x-ray systems. UBS Warburg is lead managing the $100 million IPO. Burrill & Co. and Thomas Weisel Partners invested $200 million in the company in January.

Three companies are on the calendar to price the week of Dec. 10. First up is the $49 million SG Cowen lead managed IPO from Centene Corp. (Proposed NNM:CNTE), a managed care provider for people receiving Medicaid. Network security systems maker NetScreen Technologies Inc. (Proposed NNM:NSCN) is slated for Dec. 12, when it will try to raise $78.2 million via lead manager Goldman Sachs. Also on Dec. 12 is a $127.5 million IPO from American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. (NNM:APPX), a maker of injectable drugs. CIBC World Markets is lead managing that deal.

Those five deals could add $562.7 million to a venture-backed IPO total which is only at $3.2 billion so far this year. Of the 32 venture-backed IPOs in registration, many of them are considered stale, having been sitting on the SEC filings shelves for over a year without being executed, withdrawn or postponed. Ten stale companies make up $851.5 million in total possible proceeds, according to our target=new>VentureXpert database, and received a total of $523.19 million in venture capital funding.

The largest stale deal is a $146.6 million offering planned by GMP Companies Inc. (Proposed NNM:GMPC). The medical company incubator filed to go public in November 2000, after receiving $11.6 million in private equity financing from Motorola Ventures, Texas Pacific Group and J&W Seligman & Co.. Salomon Smith Barney is the lead manager for the deal.

The most recent deal to “go stale” is a $73.1 offering from Xcyte Therapies Inc. (Proposed NNM:XCYT), which filed Dec. 22, 2000. The maker of therapeutic products to treat cancer via the immune system chose SG Cowen as the lead underwriter. The company’s final round of private equity financing was in Aug. 2000, in which nine companies invested $28 million into the company.

Also in the stale column is Plumtree Software Inc. (Proposed NNM:PLUM), a corporate portal company that plans to raise $70 million via Credit Suisse First Boston. The company last received funding in May 2000, when 11 private investors infused Plumtree with $23 million.

Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs each are sitting on two stale deals.

Frank Musero is Associate Editor of the IPO Reporter. He can be contacted at: >Frank.Musero@tfn.com