Idaho-based AMIS has initial stock sale

The Northwest gained its first new public company in 17 months yesterday, when Pocatello, Idaho-based AMIS Holdings raised nearly $503 million in an initial public stock offering.

By Drew DeSilver
Seattle Times business reporter

The offering drew substantial interest from IPO-starved investors. AMIS, the parent of AMI Semiconductor, sold 145,000 more shares than the 25 million it had planned; the price, $20, was at the high end of the offering’s anticipated range.

In addition, some of AMIS’ current shareholders agreed to sell 4,855,000 of their shares, transactions not contemplated in the original prospectus. And the company boosted its "overallotment" — shares sold to meet extra demand — from 3.75 million shares to 4.5 million; nearly 2.2 million of those shares will be sold by existing shareholders.

In their first day on the Nasdaq National Market, AMIS shares closed at $20.10, up 10 cents for the day but off their intraday high of $21.85. Until recently, 2003 had been an exceptionally quiet year for IPOs, with only 15 companies completing new offerings in the first six months of the year. The third quarter has already surpassed that level: With less than a week to go, 18 companies have completed IPOs. Two Northwest companies have IPOs pending: Seattle-based American Seafoods, which filed to go public in May, and Rainier Pacific Financial Group of Fife, which filed in June. The last Northwest company to go public was Bothell-based Quinton Cardiology Systems, which had to cut its share price in half to complete the deal. AMIS, which makes customized mixed-signal chips for the automotive, medical and industrial markets, filed to go public just over a month ago.The company was owned by Japan Energy Electronic Materials until late 2000, when it sold a majority stake to Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners and Francisco Partners, a private equity firm in Menlo Park, Calif.

The company had revenue of $345.3 million last year and $211.2 million for the first six months of 2003. It is profitable on an operating basis, but debt payments and dividends to preferred shareholders make it a net money-loser.

AMIS will use all of the money raised by its IPO to repay or refinance debt and buy back its outstanding preferred stock.

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or [email protected]

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