Intrepid Potash IPO

One more IPO is planned for the US markets. Intrepid Potash Inc had initially indicated its planned size for the IPO.
However, now it seems to have raised size of the IPO.

What is the new size of the Intrepid Potash IPO?
The new size of the Intrepid Potash IPO is set to be 30 million shares. Initially it was only 24 million shares.

What is the price band of the Intrepid Potash IPO?
The price band for the Intrepid Potash IPO is $27 to $29. The initial price was $24 to $26 per share.

Who are the lead underwriters for the Intrepid Potash IPO issue?
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters for the IPO, Intrepid Potash said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

What is the business of Intrepid Potash?
As per the website of Intrepid Potash, Intrepid Mining LLC is the largest producer of potash (potassium chloride) in the United States. In addition, it produces three valuable byproducts: Solar Salt, Magnesium Chloride brine and Sulfate of Potash Magnesia.

Potash is a critical fertilizer, providing one of eight essential nutrients and is vital to the creation of protein. It is necessary and widely used to grow corn, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, hay and numerous other crops. The United States currently imports almost 85% of its potash needs.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intrepid Mining LLC has two production facilities in Utah and three in New Mexico. These subsidiaries are named: Intrepid Potash Moab, Intrepid Potash Wendover, and Intrepid Potash New Mexico. These companies collectively employ approximately 705 people.

Let’s see how this IPO performs in the markets.

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AIG World Gold Fund Review

AIG Investments have come out with an NFO or New Fund offer, for a fund dedicated to investing only in the Gold based business.
The fund is called the AIG World Gold Fund.

What is the offer period or subscription dates for AIG World Gold Fund?
The fund will accept applications from April 15th to may 14th.

When will the fund re-open for further purchase and redemption?
The AIG World Gold Fund will again open on June 12, 2008

What is the AIG World Gold Fund all about?
The primary objective of the AIG World Gold Fund is to capitalize and gain from the stocks and other instruments based in the gold business – namely, processing, extracting & marketing of gold. Interestingly, the company or the AIG World Gold Fund will NOT be purchasing the shares of the Gold business based companies directly. Instead, what it will do is simply invest the investors money into the Zurich based AIG PB Equity Gold Fund. This is the fund which will actually invest in the stocks and other instruments of gold based company. Hence, for the investors in India, it is only a simple business of buying units of a fund, which will invest in another fund units. (Read: How fund of Funds work?)

Since they are simply collecting money from investors here, and investing in some other fund, why are they taking the fund management charges? How about simply buying a gold based ETF, instead of paying heavy fund management charges to the AIG World Gold Fund?

Moreover, AIG is the same company which has lost heavily on derivatives recently

Related: Quantum Gold based ETF, Investing in Gold?

What is the underlying principles behind the AIG World Gold Fund?
Simple and straightforward, since the gold prices have going up in the recent past, so the fund management is betting on the assumption that it will go up in future as well. Ultimately, it’s the investors who have to take the call.

What is the risk involved in AIG World Gold Fund?
High Correlation and dependency on gold prices. What is you buy this fund unit when gold price is at 12,000 and for the next 5 years the gold prices keep falling down.

What about Entry and exit load information of AIG World Gold Fund?
No information is available about the entry and exit load of AIG World Gold Fund.

But definitely there will be the standard charges minimum 2.25% (my assumption, please check while applying for this gold fund) Any tax benefit available in AIG World Gold Fund? No tax benefit is available.

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Mankind Pharma IPO

Another Pharma company from India, is planning to come out with an IPO or Initial Public offering.
Mankind Pharma is plans to raise capital in the range of around Rs 300-400 crore by selling a huge stake of around 20% equity shares.

The primary purpose of raising money through the IPO is for business expansion. The IPO is expected to come in the first half of 2010. The Mankind Pharma is planning to setup a research center in the New Delhi region. Proceeds from the IPO will also go to new thereupatic segments such as cardiovascular and psychiatric segment and assist in company’s field of business.

As per the news from EconomicTimes, The company is also planning to start exporting its products in Asian countries such as Middle East and Saarc countries. At the end of March 2008, the company had a turnover of around Rs 700 crore, growing at 33% annually and is targeting a turnover of around Rs 1,100 by 2009.

Related: Aishwarya Telecom IPO Review , Codexis IPO: Biotech firm Codexis plans IPO , Pride Hotels IPO Review , Dainik Bhaskkar-DNA IPO Review

The fundamentals of the company looks good. The indicators like current shareholding pattern is also convincing. Private equity (PE) firm Chryscapital is holding 10% stake in the Delhi-based company for $24 million. It was a deal done the previous year. The rest of the stake is held by the promoter Ramesh Juneja. According to figures of research-based consultancy firm ORG IMS, Mankind is the 10th largest company by sales in the domestic market with 2.4% market share at the end of February 2008.

The company has largely grown by focussing on the smaller cities and town. It recently forayed in the diagnostic segment through a tie up with Roche Diagnostics to market the Swiss company’s a blood glucose monitoring device ‘Accu-Chek Go’ in India.

Let’s see how this Mankind PharmaIPO performs in the market.

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Globaltrans Investment London IPO Review

There is a new transatlantic IPO coming to be listed on the London Stock exchange or LSE. Globaltrans Investment which is the largest freight rail operator in the private sector of Russia, is planning to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange, a financial market known as the financial hub of Europe.
The Globaltrans Investment IPO is expected to raise around $510 million in a London IPO. Going by the valuation of this much price, the company shares will be valued at 10.8 to 14 times earnings or the PE ratio.

The total number of shares being offered in Globaltrans Investment is around 33.9 million.
The expected price band will be $11.5 to $15 per share and hence the Globaltrans Investment company will be valued at a huge market capitalization in the range on $1.35 billion to $1.75 billion.

The client list of Globaltrans Investment is having big and reliable business names – Lukoil, Rosneft & Severstal.

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley will be assisting the Globaltrans Investment for raising money through IPO proceeds. The pricing will take place on April 29.

Recently, another infrastructure company called, Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port was listed in November, and as compared to that, the Globaltrans Investment IPO appears to be at a slight discount.
Novorossiisk, which has fallen 18 percent since their listing, trades at 15 times 2009 earnings. Chinese railway container firm Tielong Logistics trades at about 20 times 2009 earnings.
U.S.-listed Union Pacific benefiting from constrained infrastructure, higher oil prices and environmental concerns, trades at 12.7 times 2009 earnings of $10.7. It is expected to generate a 20 percent growth in earnings in 2009.
By comparison, analysts expect Globaltrans' earnings to grow 38 percent to $129 million in 2009 and by 24 percent to $156 million in 2010, thanks to surging demand in metals, oil and cement.

London is emerging as a preferred destination for various companies to list their IPOs and Shares. Recently, the Mexico based metals company, Fresnillo, a spinoff from Penoles, decided to list on LSE.

Let’s see how this Globaltrans Investment IPO performs in the market.

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Fluidigm IPO Review

Fluidigm Corporation, is in the business of making equipments, tools and systems which are used in controlling fluids for life science research.
This company is planning to come out with an IPO or initial public offering and has filed for the IPO with the SEC or the Securities and Exchange.

There is no news about the expected price of the Fluidigm IPO shares, but as per the SEC filing by Fluidigm, the total money raised could be in the range of excess of $86 million. However, it is only an indication for the SEC filing and the price per share may change based on the valuations of Fluidigm stock at the later stage.

The beauty of Fluidigm technology is that the research requires the complex measurements on samples which may be smaller than the size of a single cell.The equipments and systems provided by Fluidigm enable the researcher to perform such complex measurements with pin point accurancy.

Where does the Fluidigm valuation and financial results stand?
The company is running in losses. In 2007, Fluidigm's loss widened to $25.5 million, from $23.6 million in the prior year. The company's revenue increased to $7.3 million, from $6.4 million in 2006.
Fluidigm accepts that there may be losses in the near future as well .Fluidigm also noted it has identified certain significant deficiencies in its internal control over financial reporting.

Where will the Fluidigm IPO proceeds or capital raised be used?
The company plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to grow its sales force, commercialize its products, continue research and development, expand its facilities and manufacturing operations and for working capital and other general corporate purposes. Fluidigm said it may also use some proceeds for future acquisitions.

Morgan Stanley, UBS and Leerink Swann have been appointed as the IPO's lead underwriter. Fluidigm will list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "FLDM."

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Midwest Airlines Layoff: fires 109 employees

The aviation industry may be having a tough time in the skies, due to the rising crude oil prices which touched a high of 114 dollars a barrel yesterday.
In this era of uncertainity and volatility, airlines are taking all actions they can to cut on their losses. Delta and Northewest Airlines have decided to go for a merger. Midwest airline has decided to cut off on the employee headcount by going for a job cut.
It declared officially that will lay off 35 pilots and 74 other employees. Not only that, it will also reduce the frequency of certain flights, all actions attributed to the rising fuel costs. For the remaining, the salaries may also be downsized or reduced.

Other measures that the Midwest Airlines is taking is to reduce the on board weight, so as to burn less fuel and increase savings. They are also going on revamp of various departments and improving the services by focusing on on-time arrivals and manage baggage handling in a better way.

The changes also involve an initiative called "Midwest Class," a seating choice program to debut this fall on the Boeing 717 fleet that allows passengers a chance to upgrade their seats for a higher ticket price. The program is expected to boost revenue.

Last week, the company told its pilots union that 35 pilots will be laid off under a revision of the flight schedule and that 22 will receive position and pay downgrades.

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ING Latin America Equity Fund Review

ING Mutual Fund is all set with its offering to come out with the ING Latin America Equity Fund.
The offer document has been filed with SEBI or Securities and Exchange Board India for getting the necessary regulatory approval.

As the name suggests, the ING Latin America Equity Fund, will invest in companies stocks and bonds which are in Latin America including the Caribbean. Since the Latin American countries are expected to be the emerging countries of the world, anyone who believes that Latin American economies will scale to new heights and the companies listed there will be offering good and positive returns can look for investing in this fund offered by ING.

Related: Infrastructure Funds & Tata Growing Economy Fund

A similar fund was launched by Tata under the name Tata Growing Economy Fund. The important thing to note here is that economies do not show good returns just in a matter of small time duration. They tae time to bloom, grow and hence the companies and stocks listed in such economies show returns. Hence, when going for such country or economy based funds, please make it a point to forgo your investments atleast for a 5 year long investment horizon.

Three options will be available for the investors for investing in the ING Latin America Equity Fund

• Dividend option

• Bonus option &

• Growth option.

The minimum application amount is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Re 1 thereafter.


Load Charges are heavy: 2.5% for investments less that 50 million or 5 Crore Rs. For higher amounts, no entry load. No exit load.
Probably, they want to justify the high entry load charges in the name of forex conversion.

Let’s see how investors respond to this fund, once it is offered in the market. Please take due care while making assumptions about the other country economies and stocks. Forex rate is also a concern for such funds.

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