The Match Group raised just under $400m in its initial public offering after pricing shares at the low end of the company’s projected range of $12 to $14.
The New York-based dating company, which is being floated by Barry Diller’s IAC, sold
33.3 m shares at
$12 a piece. It also granted its underwriters a 30-day option to purchase another 5m shares.
A portion of the funds raised in the offering will be used to repay debt to IAC and as a dividend to the parent company, with the remainder going to general corporate purposes. IAC will remain Match’s largest shareholder.
Match’s IPO comes at a testing time for companies seeking to tap public markets. Also on Wednesday, Square, the payments company, priced its IPO at $9 a share, below the $11 to $13 range the company had indicated in its investor roadshow.
The average year-to-date return for 2015 IPOs is a loss of 5.5 per cent, according to Renaissance Capital, a manager of IPO-focused exchange traded funds.
Match has been the fastest growing part of IAC in recent years. The company boasts 59m monthly active users and 4.7m paid subscribers across its properties, which include Match.com, Tinder, OkCupid and PlentyOfFish.
Its revenues rose 11 per cent to $888.3m in 2014 and net earnings climbed 17 per cent to $148.4m.
In the 12 months through September, the company generated $1.02bn in revenue, mainly through subscription fees for its various dating websites and apps.
But analysts have warned that its growth may not continue. Match has recently begun charging users for premium features on Tinder, but the broad availability of it and other free online dating services may be a drag on paid subscriptions.
