NEW YORK-American Portable Telecom, a personal communications services subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems Inc., Chicago, sold an initial public offering April 25 of 12.25 million shares of common stock at $17 each.
Underwriters, lead managed by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., New York, exercised their option to purchase for resale an over-allotment of 1.25 million more shares than the 11 million minimum contemplated in the preliminary prospectus registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual offering price also was at the high end of the $15-$18 range anticipated in the red herring.
A portion of the net proceeds, after underwriting and other expenses are deducted, will repay about $60.2 million of outstanding indebtedness to TDS. TDS will own a bit more than 80 percent of APT once the deal closes.
APT plans to use the balance of the net proceeds for partial financing of construction, development and operating costs associated with the establishment of PCS networks in the Major Trading Areas of Minneapolis, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Orlando, Fla., Houston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Kan., and Columbus, Ohio.
“This initial public offering will provide us with the opportunity to move rapidly forward to commence services in our MTAs by early 1997,” said Don Warkentin, president and chief executive officer of APT, in a prepared statement. “The offering is one of several tiers of financing in our plan to fully finance APT through the end of 1998.”
In terms of population equivalents, APT is the fifth largest PCS licensee in the United States, with licenses to provide service in six MTAs with about 27.3 million total pops.
The company plans to use Global System for Mobile communications technology in constructing networks for its PCS markets. Commercial service is expected to begin early next year, with completion of initial construction of PCS networks by the end of 1998.
