Opnext Unveils IPO Details

Opnext Inc. (Nasdaq: OPXT) is to price its IPO shares between $13 and $15, potentially valuing the firm at up to $930 million, the company revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Monday.

The optical components vendor, which first announced its intention to IPO in October last year, is issuing 10 million new shares for the flotation, while existing investors are selling 6.9 million shares. (See Optical IPOs: Opnext Is Next.)

The total 16.9 million shares will represent just over 27 percent of the company's stock. If the shares are priced at $14, the middle of the range, Opnext would have an initial market value of $868 million; an initial price of $15 would give it a market capitalization of $930 million.

At $14 per share, the company says it would net $125 million from its 10 million shares after costs; it will not benefit from the sale of its investors' shares.

Opnext plans to use $25 million for future capital expenditures, a further $25 million for R&D, including the development of new products in addition to the enhancement of the existing product line, and about $50 million for the repayment of short-term loans.

The company added that, while it isn't currently engaged in any M&A activity, "we may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, businesses, technologies or products that complement our existing business."

Opnext, which recently announced that it has shipped more than 250,000 10-Gbit/s transceivers, looks to trade on the Nasdaq with the ticker symbol OPXT. The company did not say when it plans to start trading on the exchange. (See Opnext Sets Milestone .)

In its SEC filing, the vendor, which specializes in optical transceiver modules, reported revenues of $61.7 million and a net profit of $3.2 million in the final three months of 2006, up from revenues of $38.6 million, and a loss of $4.1 million, a year earlier.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading