Interactive Brokers (IB) has filed with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to publicly offer an undisclosed quantity of shares at a proposed maximum aggregate offering price of $500m. The IPO was to take the form of an auction in which the price per share would be determined by a process based on a series of bids and offers prior to open trading.
The company also disclosed that it would look to enter new markets with its intention to expand into new areas of business.
In IB's auction IPO, buyers would make bids while underwriters find the highest price at which all shares could be sold, though reserving the right to set the price lower. In a traditional IPO, by contrast, the price for the new stock is set after underwriters market the shares primarily to institutional investors. In theory, auction IPOs do not exhibit a first-day price jump on the...