Overcoming a capital crunch on Wall Street, TV movie and miniseries producer RHI Entertainment mounted a $189 million initial public stock offering Wednesday.
In its first day trading, the share price sagged, closing at $13.50 per share, down 50 cents from the IPO mark.
RHI’s issue price was $14 per share -- below a $16-$18 range projected earlier, though still an accomplishment given jittery capital markets.
In the IPO, RHI -- its ticker symbol is RHIE -- will sell 13.5 million shares to the public. There are 2.025 million additional shares that the company may also sell, depending on market conditions.
RHI -- led by Robert Halmi Jr. -- plans to use proceeds to repay an existing senior second-line credit facility in full and to fund an affiliate, KRH Investments.
At the $14-per-share price, all of RHI is valued at $327 million, based on 23.4 million total shares outstanding.
Halmi, management and private-equity investor Kelso & Co. acquired the company in 2006 from Hallmark Entertainment. RHI specializes in glossy made-for-TV fare such as Dinotopia, Merlin and Flash Gordon. Its library contains 3,500 hours of long-form TV programming.
The main underwriters are JP Morgan Securities and Banc of America Securities. Thomas Weisel Partners and Cowan and Co. are co-managers.
