WideOpenWest quietly raised $310 million in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange May 25, pricing shares at $17 each Wednesday night, short of its earlier target of between $20 and $22 each.
WOW had initially filed documents for the offering in March, with plans to issue 19 million shares to the public. Another 2.8 million shares was set aside for its underwriters, which have the option of purchasing the shares in the next 30 days.
About 18.2 million shares were priced at $17 each on Wednesday night, raising a total of $310 million, according to documents.
WOW stock opened at $16.25 on May 25 and traded and high as $17.15 per share, but fell as the day progressed, closing at $16.50 each.
WOW CEO Steve Cochran rang the opening bell at NYSE on Thursday. WOW be comes the latest standalone pay TV operator to hit the public markets since Cable One was spun off from Graham Holdings, itself a spinoff of the Washington Post Co., in 2015.
And it won’t be the last. Altice USA filed IPO documents in April and that offering is expected to take place later in the year.
WOW has about 474,000 video and 729,000 broadband customers in 10 states across the country. The company has recently concentrated on its high-speed internet business, and has said it would use the proceeds from the offering to pay down debt. The stock could also be used as a currency to make acquisitions.
UBS Investment Bank and Credit Suisse acted as lead joint book-running managers for the offering. RBC Capital Markets, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Evercore ISI and Macquarie Capital were joint book-running managers.
