What is the Status of the Panther IPO?

[ATeam]

On June 2, 2006, Panther Expedited Services Inc. announced that it was planning an initial public offering of as much as $250 million in common stock.

The company filed a preliminary prospectus (FORM S-1) with the SEC which can still be read online at:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1364641/000119312506123678/ds1.htm

Normally, when a company announces an IPO and issues a preliminary prospectus, the prospectus and IPO follow in a week or two, several weeks at the outside. In this case, over five months have passed with no IPO activity.

Does anyone know what happened to the Panther IPO and why?

 

[FAMILYEXPDT]

The last word received was that they were waiting for an opportune time in the market to release the IPO. Shortly after the announcement the market took a dive and new IPO's werte doing horribly.



-Charlotte

 

[Moot]

I would think that such a narrowly focused transportation company's stock would be a tough sell. Competing on Wall Street with such diverse transportation concerns as FedEx, Con-Way, U.P.S. etc. must be difficult to say the least. A down turn in the expedite market would certainly have a devastating effect on the share price of Panther stock.

I am curious as to what they plan to do with any monies reaped from the I.P.O. Panther for the most part would be considered a non-asset based company, would it not?

Panther's reaction to it's I.P.O. situation may also being fueling some recent post such as cherry picking and others.

 

[FAMILYEXPDT]

Actually it is not a tough sell.....is not being sold as a narrowly focused transportation company....the sell is a non-asset based company that has shown 20% growth in volume year after year. The market loves those types of companies. I think the delay has more to do with the downtrend in market ipo's as well as the election...eeing how that would pan out and affect the market. You only have one IPO....I just think they are being prudent and catching the most opportune time. It is my understanding they have some very good analysts working for them.....good as in successful in past ipo offerings. I hope to furthur find out status at fl;eet owners meeting in december. Will let you know.


I think the cherry picking stuff is a knee jerk reaction to freight this year.....freight is down, noone can hide it...no matter how well your personal truck is doing freight is just down. You have people bitching no freight no freight and turning down the loads that are available. Believe me I turn down crap that is no good either...Sat in Ohio for 2 days in a tractor trailer reefer team best load I could get from dispatch was 108 miles deadhead for 100 loaded miles into canada. I said no and booked a backhaul that paid me 1.80 a mile. At least with Panther I can do that.


It is rough out there right now. YOu have to be vigilsnt to keep you and your trucks moving.




-Charlotte

 

[Moot]

You say freight is down. Exactly my point. Would this not drastically effect the stock price of a company with a narrow market focus.

Who would invest in a company like this? It's not like expedite freight is a cure for cancer. Like any industry the transportation market is volatile. A down turn in transportion needs would impact all carriers but could prove fatal to a company specializing in a niche market.

I don't see the rewards outweighing the risks. Unless of course Panther was to sell itself. This could drive up the share price and make Buffy, Jodi and Sissy a pretty penny.

 

[ATeam]

>The last word received was that they were waiting for an
>opportune time in the market to release the IPO. Shortly
>after the announcement the market took a dive and new IPO's
>werte doing horribly.
>
>
>
>-Charlotte

The stock market has been setting new all-time highs in recent weeks. How much more opportune must things get for Panther to proceed?

Granted, the IPO market has slowed in 3Q, 2006, but as you said, Panther has an impressive collection of market-wise directors on its board. When they announced their IPO intent, they had a sense of the market they would be selling into and the value of the shares they would be offering. Have expediting market realities changed so much that Panther decided to pull back?

What impact, if any, did Panther's purchase of Con-way Expedite have on the Panther IPO?