CPI Card Group Inc., the nation’s leading maker of credit and debit cards, wanted to raise $300 million in an initial public offering, but it had to settle for less than half that.
The Littleton company priced 15 million shares at $10 a piece Thursday evening, netting $137.5 million, after deductions for underwriting and other fees.
In late September, the company had sought as much as $18 a share. It dropped the offering to $12 to $13 a share due to weak demand, and then dropped it farther.
The first day of trading Friday suggested the company might have left money on the table. Shares rose as high as $13.40 before closing at $12.17, a gain of 21.7 percent.
CPI Card Group’s IPO was the second largest of five in the U.S. this week. The company has seen business surge as banks and other issuers replace magnetic-stripe cards with ones also containing an EMV chip designed to reduce fraud.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or @aldosvaldi
