US-based medical diagnostics company LipoScience, previously backed by corporates including General Electric, has reduced its expected share price in its Nasdaq stock exchange flotation and seen a first-day rise.
The five million shares to be sold in its initial public offering (IPO) will be issued at $9 each compared to a $13 to $15 range range previously announced, according to its regulatory filing. Shares rose $1.45, or 16%, to close at $10.45 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday after its listing.
LipoScience had previously filed for an IPO of up to $100m, in March 2002, but was forced to abandon its plans later that year due to insufficient interest from potential investors.
Shareholders include Agilent Technologies (5.8%) and venture capital firms Three Arch Capital (18.5% pre-IPO stake), SightLine Partners (9%), Pappas Ventures (7.6%), Invesco Private Capital (7.6%) and Camden Partners (7.5%).
The company’s round of series F funding in 2006 raised $13m from a range of investors including GE Capital Equity Investments, an investment division of US-based conglomerate General Electric and Varian, the US-based scientific instrument manufacturer now owned by Agilent Technologies, which owns 6% of LipoScience.
Private equity firms Camden Partners and Invesco Private Capital, and venture capital firms Pappas Ventures, Sightline Partners and Three Arch Partners also invested in the F round.
Prior to this, LipoScience raised more than $15m in a series E round of funding, closing in August 2003. Partners in this round included GE Capital Equity, Three Arch and Pappas in addition to US-based investment bank Piper Jaffray.
Founded as an offshoot from research carried out at North Carolina State University, LipoScience develops proprietary tests for diabetes and heart disease based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), which produces a digital representation of the molecules present in a blood sample.