Bain Capital’s Sensata Technologies sold $569 million worth of shares at the low end of its price range in the biggest U.S. initial public offering this year.
Shares of Sensata, the maker of sensors for Ford Motor and controls for Samsung Electronics, closed up 3.1 percent to $18.56 in New York Stock Exchange trading. The company sold 31.6 million shares for $18 each Wednesday after asking for as much as $20, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bloomberg data show. Sensata was set to receive 83 percent of the proceeds before fees and expenses, its filing showed, while owners including Bain, the $65 billion private-equity firm, would get the rest.
Sensata became just the third company this year to sell its shares within the price range set by its underwriters as eight U.S. IPOs were delayed or postponed and 13 completed deals were cut by 26 percent on average. Buyers have extracted concessions in private-equity backed offerings from Graham Packaging to Generac as buyout funds turn to IPOs to unload some of their $500 billion in investments.
