Largest U.S. IPOs of the first quarter

According to Renaissance Capital, the U.S. initial public offering market had the most first-quarter activity since 2000, with 64 firms raising a total of $10.6 billion. First-quarter activity in 2013 had 31 deals raising $7.6 billion total.

In terms of size, Santander Consumer USA (SC) was the largest U.S. deal of the quarter ($1.8 billion), followed by Rice Energy ($924 million) and EP Energy ($704 million).

Renaissance noted that the top 10 IPOs by deal size returned an average of 10%, below the average of all deals (25.3%). Oil and gas driller RSP Permian had the highest return at 48.2%, while helicopter service provider CHC Group had a -26.1% return from its IPO.

Not all companies looking to go public are feeling so bold about their prospects. Virtu Financial, a high-frequency trading firm, disclosed in its prospectus that it lost money on just one day in nearly five years, an achievement that not even Goldman Sachs can claim. But it has postponed its coming IPO. until at least later this month as it waits for the furor stirred up by Michael Lewis’s latest book, “Flash Boys,” to quiet down, according to people briefed on the matter.

EP Energy Corp (EPE) began trading on the NYSE on 17 January 2014

EP Energy Corp. priced its initial public offering of 35.2 million shares at $20 a share, lower than it had originally forecasted.

• EP Energy, which drills for oil in so-called shale rock formations underlying Texas, Utah and Louisiana, is among the domestic energy players that have been lining up to tap the equity market. Advances in drilling technology such as hydraulic fracturing—or “fracking”—have led to a surge in energy production within the U.S.
• Sold 35.2 million shares, versus the 40 million it had forecast in a regulatory filing.
• Two other companies tied to shale oil and gas are slated to debut in coming days. Energy producer RSP Permian Inc. is slated to price a roughly $400 million IPO after the close, while Rice Energy Inc. has an IPO of about $800 million on deck for next week.

The offering, valued at $704 million, was expected to be one of the largest in the industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Houston-based oil and gas company was expected to raise as much as $1.1 billion based on the price of 40 million shares at $23 to $27 a share.

The stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “EPE.”

EP Energy filed for the IPO in September, and Reuters reported at the time that it could value the company at more than $8 billion.

EP Energy, which originally was El Paso Corp.'s exploration and production arm, was bought by a private equity group for $7.15 billion in May 2012, making it the largest private equity deal of the year. The deal took nine months and was tied to Kinder Morgan’s $38 billion acquisition of El Paso.

The private equity group was led by Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO) and included Riverstone Holdings LLC, Access Industries Inc. and Korea National Oil Corp.

Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint book-running managers. Citigroup, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are also acting as book-running managers. Evercore, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., Barclays, Jefferies, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BBVA, Nomura,
Scotiabank/Howard Weil, Societe Generale and TD Securities are acting as senior co-managers, and Capital One Securities, CIBC, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, ING, Mizuho Securities, SMBC Nikko, Stephens Inc., Lebenthal Capital Markets and Topeka Capital Markets are acting as co-managers.