Wireless Gear Maker Ubiquiti Cuts Price on Initial Offer

Ubiquiti Networks Inc. cut the per- share price on its initial public offering by as much as 32 percent as the wireless network gear maker strives to complete the first U.S. IPO in more than a month.

The new price range is $15 to $17 a share, according to a regulatory filing today from the San Jose, California-based company. Its earlier range was $20 to $22. Also today, Xunlei Ltd., a digital-media streaming and download services provider in Shenzhen, China, withdrew plans for a U.S. IPO.

Ubiquiti would mark the first U.S. IPO since Sept. 1, after equity markets fell to the lowest level in more than a year and stock volatility surged in August to the highest since 2009. At least 67 companies have withdrawn or postponed U.S. IPOs this year, the most since the comparable period in 2008, Bloomberg data show.

Ubiquiti “may take a discount in order to get the cash,” Michael Shinnick, who helps oversee $9.5 billion at South Bend, Indiana-based Wasatch Advisors Inc., said before the new price range was released. “There are other types of companies that can wait, be more opportunistic and look for maximizing their valuation.”

The IPO is being led by UBS AG (UBS), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Raymond James Financial Inc. (RJF) The company, whose shares will list on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol UBNT, will use proceeds from the offering to bolster working capital and repay $34 million of promissory notes, according to the filing.

Tudou Offering

Before the recent lull in IPOs, Tudou Holdings Ltd., the Shanghai-based video website operator, raised $174 million in a U.S. listing on Aug. 16. American Realty Capital Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust based in New York, sold $69.8 million of shares in its IPO on Sept. 1.

Even discounted deals haven’t attracted investors. WhiteGlove Health Inc., the Austin, Texas-based provider of medical services, announced IPO plans in May, then slashed the size of its offering by 31 percent and finally withdrew its registration last month.

Meanwhile, the backlog of companies that have filed to raise money through initial share sales has grown. There were more than 200 deals in the U.S. IPO backlog seeking a total of $53 billion at the end of last month, the most since 2000, according to Renaissance Capital LLC, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based IPO research and investment firm.

Separately, equity markets have rebounded as European leaders provide a road map to tame the debt crisis and U.S. economic data has improved. U.S. stocks rose yesterday, briefly erasing the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 2011 loss. The Dow has gained 8.1 percent since reaching this year’s closing low on Oct. 3, while the S&P 500 had the biggest rally over seven days since March 2009, climbing 9.8 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lee Spears in New York at lspears3@bloomberg.net; Zijing Wu in London at zwu17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jennifer Sondag at jsondag@bloomberg.net