Distributor Brightstar Corp. is planning an initial public offering of up to $115 million, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company plans to use any proceeds from the offering for potential acquisitions of and investments in other businesses, to expand into new markets, and for working capital, and to redeem some shares of common stock and repay debt.
Brightstar distributes mobile and fixed wireless phones and accessories in 32 countries throughout the Americas. Its customers include America Movil S.A. de C.V., BellSouth Corp., Telefonica Moviles, Telecom Italia S.P.A. and Verizon Communications Inc., and other wireless carriers. It has supply relationships with manufacturers, including Motorola Inc., Kyocera Wireless Corp., Sagem S.A., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sendo America Inc.
The company said its net sales have increased at an average annual compounded rate of 75 percent since 1998, its first full year of operations. Last year, Brightstar sold more than 11 million phones, generating net sales of more than $1.2 billion.
The company said it plans to increase its presence in Latin America and the United States, as well as expand into new markets and to identify new product and service offerings for its customers, in an effort to meets its objective of becoming “the leading distributor of wireless communications devices and provider of integrated supply-chain logistics services in the world.”
Brightstar came onto the scene after its public-company competitors Brightpoint Inc. and CellStar Corp.
Brightpoint yesterday announced the acquisition of MF-Tukku Oy, a Helsinki, Finland-based distributor of Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Motorola wireless devices and accessories. Simultaneously, MF-Tukku acquired Codeal Oy, a Helsinki, Finland-based distributor of Samsung wireless devices and accessories. Combined revenues for MF-Tukku and Codeal, to be known as Brightpoint Finland Oy, for the 12 months ended June 30 were $17 million. Shares of Brightpoint were trading at $13.06 per share at press time.
CellStar Corp., which recently blamed economic trouble and price wars in its main China market for disappointing revenues for the second quarter, is currently trading at $4.93 per share.
