Prepared by Capital Hunter analysts:
Venture capital investment slipped once again, this time to a yearly low of $223 million, the lowest weekly total (not counting holidays) since July of 2005. In addition, the $7.96 million per deal average is the lowest since late April of 2005. Obviously this was not a good week for venture capital. Equally out of the ordinary is the fact that two sectors, software and medical devices, accounted for nearly three-fourths of all funding, whereas sectors such as biotechnology, online media, alternative energy and semiconductors received either negligible amounts of capital or nothing at all. California, which raises more money than any other state on a very consistent basis (one of these days we are going to have to separate California funding by region), dominated by an even larger margin than usual, taking in close to 70% of all venture investment. The only positive to come away with this period is the fact that many of the companies that received investment were early-stage companies (Looking at the chart below, you will see that Series C stage financings and later accounted for more than 50% of all capital. However, one company NeoVista, accounted for over 75% of all Series C funding and MontaVista Software accounted for about half of all Series D and up financings.) and obviously you need early-stage funding in order to get larger middle and late-stage funding down the road. We believe this was an anomalous week, and we expect to see better numbers in the coming weeks even with the peak of the Christmas season fast approaching. Stay tuned.
The IPO market, after slipping to just three offerings two weeks ago, rebounded with five companies listing this period, though still a far cry from the near prodigious moth of November. The largest of the five IPOs was Athens-based Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, which supplies petroleum products to the maritime industries, priced at $175 million and is up close to 15% from its opening day price. The most interesting of the bunch however is Heelys, which makes quirky footwear for kids and adolescents, is up over 50% from its offering price of $21 a share. Despite its impressive growth, it remains to be seen whether Heelys is a product that has staying power or is merely a fad. For more information of these companies I encourage you to use the links below, which will take you to Yahoo! Finance where you can find a lot of information about the company that interests you. Without further ado, here are the public markets five newest companies:
Penn Virginia GP Holdings
NYSE:PVG priced at $116.55 million and is a limited partnership with three types of equity interests in publicly traded natural gas and coal company Penn Virginia Resource Partners.
Smart Move
AMEX:MVE.U priced at $14.4 million and is a provider of transportation services using proprietary shipping containers.
Heelys
NASDAQ:HLYS priced at $134.9 million and is a designer and distributor of sports-inspired footwear for the youth market.
Allegiant Travel
NASDAQ:ALGT priced at $90 million and is an operator of a low cost airline and provider of travel services linking customers to destinations such as Las Vegas, Orlando & St. Petersburg.
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network
NYSE:ANW priced at $175 million and is a provider of marine fuel logistics that supplies ships at dock or at sea.
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