Agilent Technologies Inc, has increased the number of shares up for grabs and upped their price range for its upcoming initial public offering, according to documents lodged with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission yesterday. The revised terms of the issue mean Hewlett-Packard Co subsidiary, Agilent, could raise as much as $1.82bn, compared to $1.108bn under previous plans.
Agilent has filed to upgrade the offer price range to $26 to $28 from the old range of $19 to $22 per share and the number of shares on offer has been increased to 64 million from 57 million. Increasing the price range of IPOs often indicates strong investor demand for the stock
Palo Alto, California-based Agilent makes electronic test and measurement instruments for telecommunications carriers and hardware providers, as well as semiconductors, fiber-optic devices and healthcare and chemical analysis technology products.
The firm has said it plans to use the IPO proceeds, to pay HP a separation dividend. Meantime HP will pay about $983m in cash to Agilent under the terms of the spin-off deal. The offering will leave the computer products giant with an 84% stake in Agilent, which it will dispose of by mid-2000 through distributing Agilent shares to its own shareholders. Agilent executives have said in previous filings that the firm’s separate flotation on the New York Stock Exchange would improve its fund- raising capabilities by allowing its to make debt or equity securities issues. It will also improve the firm’s bargaining power to make acquisitions and, internally, improve product focus, market responsiveness and employee accountability, the filing said.
