Michaels, NextEra Partners IPOs Get Different Responses

Arts and craft retailer Michaels Companies Inc. (MIK) has sold 27.8 million shares in its initial public offering (IPO). The shares priced on Thursday at $17, the low end of the expected range of $17 to $19. The stock opened at $16.82 Friday morning, about 1% below the IPO price.

The company raised around $472 million in the IPO for Bain Capital Partners and Blackstone Group L.P. (BX), which combined to take Michaels private in 2006 for about $6 billion. Prior to the IPO, Bain and Blackstone owned about 93.2% of Michaels and Highfields Capital Management owned about 6.2%. Both Bain and Blackstone retain a 40% stake in the company.

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The company owns 1,263 stores under the Michaels and Aaron Brothers brands and generated about $4.6 billion in sales in its most recent fiscal year ended February 1, 2014. The company posted a net profit of $243 million last year.

Shares rose to a high $17.14 before retreating to around $17.02.

In a second major IPO Friday, alternative energy company NextEra Energy Partners L.P. (NEP) began trading Friday morning at $32.55 per common unit, up 30% over the IPO price of $25 per common unit set Thursday night. The company sold 16.3 million units, well above the $19 to $21 expected range, and investors were happy to pay the premium. The company was spun out of NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE).

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Although NextEra Energy Partners may be treated like a master limited partnership (MLP) at the state level, at the federal level it is a corporation and will be taxed like a corporation until Congress changes the MLP laws to allow the inclusion of alternative energy companies.

NextEra Energy Partners common units rose to $33.20 shortly after trading began, but pulled back to about $31.34.

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