Teligent Inc, the Alexandria, Virginia-based US wireless communications venture widely regarded as a hot property, has made its initial public offering of 5.5 million shares at $21.50 per share, to raise around $118m. The move is part of a program of fund raising to pay for its planned $1.5bn 18GHz point-to-multipoint fixed radio network, due to be built in the first quarter of 1998. Teligent has already raised $100m from NTT Corp $780m from Northern Telecom Ltd, and filed for a $400m stock debt offering, bringing the total investment raised so far to $1.5bn. Teligent, formerly known as Associated Group LLC, was started up by the Associated Group Inc, a holding company owned by the billionaire Berkman family of Pittsburgh. Ex-AT&T president and chief operating officer, Alex Mandl was recently recruited to serve on the board of directors. It plans to offer local business telecommunications and high speed data services – internet access at up to 128Kbps – in order to compete with the regional Bell operating companies.
