Presidio Opens At The Low End Of IPO Range, But Shares Are Starting To Climb

Solution provider powerhouse Presidio began trading as a public company today at $13.50 per share, below the $14 to $16 estimated range.

New York-based Presidio, ranked No. 22 on CRN's 2016 Solution Provider 500 list, priced 16.7 million shares at $14 on Thursday with its stock slightly rising to $14.20 per share by 2 p.m. and closing at $14.25 in its first day of trading. In after hours trading the stock was up two cents to $14.27.

The IPO raised $233 million by investors, with all of the funding being used to pay down the company's roughly $1 billion debt, according to David Hart, Presidio's COO.

[Related: Presidio's IPO Bombshell: Annual Sales Up 14 Percent With $3.4M Loss]

"One hundred percent of the cash is going to be used to retire debt, so just strengthening the balance sheet," said Hart, in an interview with CRN. "Part of the capitalization strategy of the business was to make this equity offering to the public market and to use the proceeds to pay down debt, and that will strengthen the business."

The solution provider filed for an initial public offering in November, reporting a net loss of $3.4 million for its fiscal year 2016, ended June 30, on annual sales of $2.71 billion. The company's sales had grown 14 percent year-over-year.