The Heelys IPO officially launched on Thursday and the market priced the 6.425 million share offering well above original estimates. Heelys offered 3.125 million shares of common stock and certain existing stockholders offered the remaining 3.3 million shares. The offering was expected to sell for $16-$18 per share, but sold for $21 per share, raising almost $135 million. The company itself will walk away with approximately $65.6 million from the IPO. The company’s stock closed the day Friday up 55.24% at $32.60 per share. In addition, underwriters Bear Stearns & Co. and Wachovia Securities have the option to buy another 937,500 shares to cover over-allotments.

As SEW reported when the company announced its pricing intentions (SEW_0648), net sales for the third quarter were up nearly 460% to $72.5 million from $13.0 million in the year-ago period. Domestic sales were up 469% to $61.4 million from $10.8 million in Q3 last year and International sales jumped 413% to $11.1 million. Net income was up more than eight-fold to $18.4 million in the period.

Order backlog at the end of September was pegged at approximately $69.0 million, up more than 430%. HLYS said that Q4 represented approximately 29.8% of annual net sales in 2004 and 33.9% in 2005.


>>> Chalk this one up to the some of the best timing ever for an IPO. Right in time for Christmas…