NXP cuts IPO price by as much as 33%

NXP originally filed for an IPO worth up to $1.15billion, but later said it only hoped to raise $663million when it set the terms for the deal in late July. Deutsche Bank lost its underwriting slot for the IPO in April because it refused to renew a $60million line of credit for the chipmaker. In 2006, the Dutch chipmaker was acquired by KKR, Bain and three other private equity firms in a $9.4billion leveraged buyout and sold 34million shares at $14 each after offering them for $18 to $21. This was also below the cost of its private equity owners' initial investment. NXP was formed when Royal Philips Electronics sold an 80.1 percent stake in its semiconductor business in 2006 to a buyout consortium that also included Silver Lake, Apax Partners and AlpInvest Partners. Since then, NXP, which has both Apple and Bosch as its customers, has suffered from reduced demand and onerous debt loads. It posted a 66% increase in sales in the first three months of the year compared with a year earlier. However, sales fell in each of 2007, 2008 and 2009 and the company has never posted a net profit.