GT Solar IPO Timing: Genius or Insanity? (SOLR)

The IPO market might be dead of late, but we did get an IPO pricing for trading this morning.  GT Solar International Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR) did raise approximately $500 million in this pricing.  Its 30.3 million shares priced at $16.50 per share, which is in the middle of the $15.50 to $17.50 indicated range. 

Its joint book-running managers are listed as Credit Suisse and UBS, and co-managers are listed as Banc of America, Deutsche Bank, Piper Jaffray, and Thomas Weisel Partners.  These underwriters were also granted a 4.55 million share over-allotment option for the next 30-days.

We would note that all of the shares are being sold by the stockholderGT Solar Holdings, LLC.  We also saw a flood of Form 3 filings fromother insiders last night.

There are two issues to address here in the current IPO market.  Wehave just seen a monster IPO.  First is that there have been no IPO’slately because of market conditions.  While times have been very tough,the market has stabilized.  This creates a coin toss in scenario one.The second issue to address is that alternative energy stocks haven’tbeen performing with some techs and financials because the price of oilis down over $20.00 per barrel in just the last 2 or 3 weeks.  If oilprices keep dropping this sector could face pressure even thoughtraders were still excited about alternative energy stocks back whenoil went from $40 to $60 and $60 to $80 and so on.

With a mid-point pricing, insiders selling, and a question overalternative energy prices vs. fossil fuel prices, it’s a no-brainer tocall this IPO a real wild card.

If you want to find out more about the size of the contracts it has signed, you can see a quick snippet of this year’s contract announcements here.

Jon C. Ogg
July 24, 2008