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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

UPDATE: Sensata IPO Prices At $18, Within Expected Range

By Lynn Cowan

Dow Jones Newswires

High-tech sensor company Sensata Technologies Holding added another upbeat data point to the U.S. IPO market Wednesday, pricing its 31.6 million-share offering at $18 a share, within its expected price range.

Netherlands-based Sensata's $569 million capital raise is the largest IPO to list in the U.S. so far in 2010, and the biggest deal since Cobalt International Energy Inc. (CIE) raised $850 million in December. Shares begin to trade Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ST.

Although Sensata priced at the low end of its expected range, the fact that it made it within the range at all is notable. Since the start of the year, only two of the previous nine IPOs managed to price within their expected ranges. The remaining seven had to cut their prices to attract enough investor interest; several other deals were postponed after failing to price.

Sensata's deal follows a day after ocean shipping company Baltic Trading Ltd.'s (BALT) priced within the range--also at the low end. Baltic's stock closed at $13.96 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, about flat with its initial public offering price of $14.

Morgan Stanley (MS) and Barclays Capital managed Sensata's IPO.