Freescale Semiconductor files for IPO
Freescale Semiconductor has filed for an IPO and plans to sell 43.5million shares. With share prices estimated between $22 and $24, this could raise up to $1.04billion for the Austin based chip manufacturer. The shares could be sold to investors as early as May 23 and the offering would value the company at around $5.6bn.
Freescale, which spun off from Motorola in 2004, is currently $7.6bn in debt, primarily because of a private equity leveraged buyout in 2006. However, the company consistently generates cash from operations which has been used to pay down part of this debt for several years.
In 2010, it reported $4.46bn in revenue, a year on year increase of $0.95bn, and is one of the leading chip makers in automotive, communications, consumer and industrial markets. Freescale has granted the underwriters a 30 day option to purchase up to an additional 6.5million common shares to cover over allotments.
