With Esat's new share issue on Nasdaq being priced the week after next, Denis O'Brien will no doubt be pleased with the recovery in the Esat price in the past week. After all, every extra dollar on the issue price is worth $200,000 (£140,845) to the Esat boss, not to mention the institutions which are selling large chunks of shares, and Esat itself. The higher the price, the more Esat will be able to realise from the 1.3 million new shares it is issuing.
When the share issue was announced, Esat shares were trading at $38 but then fell back to a low of $29 as some investors took profits ahead of the dilution that the share issue would produce. Since then, as Nasdaq shares rebounded so have Esat's and the shares are now back trading at around $36. If the group is able to price the share issue at anything near that price, it will be perfectly happy.
Still on Nasdaq, debutant Icon continues to perform excellently, trading up to a new high of $28 55 per cent above the $18 flotation price of early May.
The Icon performance, not to mention Esat, Ryanair, Iona and CBT, augurs well for future Nasdaq flotations by Irish high-tech companies. So far, the Irish on Nasdaq have more than met market expectations and are seen as a quality bunch. That will be of huge benefit to the likes of Trintech when it comes to market later this year.
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