Silicon Valley-based ATE vendor Nextest Systems Corp. today issued its initial public offering of stock, offering 5.4 million shares at $14 per share.

That price was at the bottom of the range of $14 to $16 per share range cited in the company's updated prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week. The IPO consists of 4 million shares offered by the company, and 1.4 million shares offered by existing selling stockholders – approximately 32 percent of the company's total common shares.

Nextest anticipates the IPO will generate nearly $76 million with approximately $56 million going to the company.

The company specializes in low-cost ATE for flash memory, but also sells to the MCU and FPGA markets; it has an installed base of some 1,500 systems. For the six months ended Dec. 31, 2005, Nextest had net revenue of $36.6 million and net income of $3.3 million, compared with net revenue of $27.5 million and net income of $1.7 million for the six months ended Dec.31, 2004. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2005, it reported net revenue of $48.4 million and a net loss of $300,000, compared with net revenue of $44.5 million and net income of $6.3 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004.

In addition to the 5.4 million shares, Nextest and its selling stockholders have granted the underwriters, Merrill Lynch, a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 810,000 shares solely to cover over allotments, if any. The IPO was made solely by mmeans of a prospectus.

Another smaller ATE vendor, Eagle Test Systems, went public earlier this month on March 9, closing its first day of trading at $15.50 per share, at the top end of the range stated in its prospectus of $14 to $16 per share. In trading this morning it was selling for $14 per share.

By: DocMemory
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