Quintiles went public Thursday morning in what veteran financial observers have told WRALTechWire is the largest such IPO by a Triangle firm.
Shares jumped 10 percent immediately from the opening price of $40.
Nearly 8 million shares traded hands in the opening minutes. The total climbed past 10 million just after 10 a.m.
Nearly an hour into tradaing, shares were up 9.88 percent, or $3.95, at $43.95.
Shares have traded as high as $44.09 before 11 a.m.
By noon, 14 million shares had traded hands and the price remained up over 9 percent at $43.76.
Trading slowed in the afternoon with 15 million shares traded by 2 p.m. and the price down slightly to $43.35.
Shares ended the day up 5.28 percent at $42.11 with more than 19 million shares traded.
Founder and Chairman Dennis Gillings along with other top executives, including CEO Tom Pike, traveled to New York for the trading kickoff.
Quintiles believes that the climate for providing pharmaceutical services is strong. Pike said that research and development spending is stabilizing and more pharmaceutical outsourcing is taking place. Given those trends, Pike said that Quintiles is well-positioned to help pharmas.
“We know we’re successful if we can help them with the probability of success,” he said. “That’s doing a trial faster, doing it more efficiently, helping them make better decisions.”
Gillings will ring the NYSE opening bell on Friday, the NYSE says.
Pike also was featured in a live interview on cable news station CNBC.
The Durham pharmaceuticals services provider on Wednesday evening priced its initial public offering of more than 23.6 million shares of common stock at the price of $40 per share. The company is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “Q.”
At the $40 per share price, Quintiles is set to raise more than $944 million. Quintiles is offering 13.1 million shares of common stock and selling shareholders are offering 10.5 million shares of common stock. Selling shareholders have granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3.5 million shares of common stock. The offering is expected to close on May 14.
It’s the second public stock offering for Quintiles. The company first went public in 1994. Founder and then CEO Dennis Gillings led other investors in taking the company private again in 2003.
In earlier securities filings, Quintiles had estimated net proceeds from the offering of approximately $489.8 million, after commissions and expenses. Most of the proceeds would be used to pay down debt. The company will also pay a one-time $25 million “termination fee” to Gillings and other private equity investors in the company. Any remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
Morgan Stanley, Barclays and J.P. Morgan are serving as joint lead book-running managers for the offering. Citigroup, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Wells Fargo Securities, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as book-running managers for the offering. Baird, William Blair and Jefferies are serving as lead co-managers, and Guggenheim Securities, Piper Jaffray, Raymond James, RBC Capital Markets and UBS Investment Bank are serving as co-managers for the offering.
WRALTechWire has much more details.
