IPO Market Perks Up With a Trio of Deals

The initial public offering market may be down but it's not out. At least that's what a handful of new IPO filings suggests.

Most recently, hospice service provider VistaCare (proposed symbol VSTA:Nasdaq) filed Tuesday to raise as much as $85 million in an IPO. As of June 30, the Arizona-based company had 3,300 patients in 14 states.

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One of VistaCare's positive attributes is its net patient revenue growth. For the three months ended March 31, its net patient revenue was $28.2 million, with net income of $930,000. During the same period in 2001, net patient revenue was $21.7 million with a net loss of $2.1 million. The company's impressively increasing revenue and strengthening bottom line should bring some attention to the deal. Its lead managers are Lehman Brothers and SG Cowen.

Another deal with Lehman Brothers at the lead is Texas Capital Bancshares (proposed symbol TCBI:Nasdaq), which hopes to raise $75 million in its IPO. The company provides banking services to middle-market business segments and high-net-worth individual segments of the Texas economy. Here are a few facts to consider:

The company's assets increased at annual rates of 357% in 1999, 122% in 2000 and 28% in 2001.

During 1999 and 2000 the company established seven banking centers in key metropolitan markets in Texas.

As of June 30 the bank had $1.3 billion in assets, $945 million in total loans, $980 million in deposits and $118 million in stockholders' equity, a significant increase since the company began operations in December 1998.

As long as Texas Capital can expand effectively through the successful acquisition of banks and financial institutions, the deal should be fine.

The third recent filing is Loews Cineplex. After emerging from bankruptcy reorganization in March, this New York-based company, which owns and operates more than 2,700 movie screens, is now seeking to raise $300 million from an IPO.

This deal has been filed at a tough time, however, as shares of its competitor Regal Entertainment (RGC - commentary - Cramer's Take) are now trading at 9% below their issue price. Regal went public on May 8 at an offering price of $19. Another movie theater chain that filed this year, Cinemark (proposed symbol CNK:NYSE), recently postponed its IPO.

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Michael Falbo is an analyst for ipoPros.com, a Boulder, Colo.-based research boutique (now a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com) specializing in the analysis of equity syndicate offerings. This column is not meant as investment advice; it is instead meant to provide insight into the methods of new and secondary offerings. Neither Falbo nor his firm has entered indications of interest in any of the companies discussed in this column. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Falbo appreciates your feedback at [e-mail].