NEW YORK-Excel Communications Inc., which plans to begin offering nationwide paging services this summer, sold an initial public offering May 10 with the share price rising dramatically by the end of the first trading day.
The company offered 10 million shares of common stock at $15 each when the Nasdaq market opened Friday morning. When the market closed late afternoon Friday, Excel’s new stock settled at $24.125, after hitting a high of $33.125 earlier in the day. The company is listed under the symbol ECI.
Net proceeds raised by the IPO were $137.2 million. Excel said it plans to use the capital raised to develop a long-distance network, to acquire and develop corporate facilities, to improve and develop information systems and for general corporate purposes, including possible future acquisitions.
In March, Excel, which is headquartered in Dallas, entered into a non-exclusive reseller agreement with PageMart Inc., also based in Dallas. Under the three-year renewable agreement, PageMart will provide paging products and services to Excel, including narrowband personal communications services when these become available to PageMart’s own customers.
Wireless cable, home security monitoring, cellular and local phone service, all obtained through resale agreements, also are part of the company’s services expansion strategy.
Excel is a non facilities-based reseller offering services including long-distance calling for approximately 3.1 million residential and small-business subscribers. It currently depends primarily on Frontier and Switched Services Communications L.L.C. for transmission of subscriber phone calls. Excel has plans to develop its own long-distance network, in part by acquiring or leasing switches and dedicated transmission lines.
Excel also offers its customers calling cards and toll-free international calling services.
