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Shares of Rubicon Technology Inc., the latest company to shine a spotlight
on the Chicago IPO market, soared 30% Friday to $18.25.
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The Franklin Park-based producer of materials used to make light-emitting
diode chips raised $77 million this week. Some early investors sold 1.2
million shares, raising another $16.8 million. The seven-year-old company
has a total market value of $351 million.
Rubicon makes sapphire wafers for LEDs used in mobile phones, automobile
dashboards, traffic signals and, increasingly, commercial lighting. Sapphire
crystals are used to make high-brightness LEDs crucial for producing white
light.
“They have some interesting technology and a different approach
to growing the crystals,” said Bob Steele, director of research
for Mountain View, Calif.-based Strategies Unlimited. “The space
is a growing market, especially in Taiwan, Korea and China, but it’s
not without competitors.”
Rubicon is this fifth Chicago-area company to go public this year.
Another, Iggys House Inc., a discount online real estate brokerage founded
2 years ago, is expected to go public next week by selling 3 million shares
at $5 to $6 each, according to Renaissance Capital, which tracks IPOs.
Combined, the five new public companies have raised almost $1 billion,
though half of that came from Orbitz Worldwide Inc.’s $510-million
debut in July. That easily tops last year’s performance, when three
Chicago companies raised $354 million.
Another Chicago-area company, Initiate Systems Inc., filed IPO plans this
week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Initiate Systems, which hopes to raise $75 million, makes software that
allows companies to centralize control over data spread across various
computer systems.
The company says it has 100 large business customers and took in about
$32 million in revenue last year but posted a loss of $12.3 million.
Initiate was founded in 1994 as RBG Corp. and later renamed Madison Information
Technologies Inc. before changing names again in 2003.
