Virgin Mobile’s First Analyst Call…A Sell (VM, S)

247wallst — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:09:31 +0000

Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE:), Richard Branson’s recent pay as you go cellular carrier IPO, managed to pick up its first analyst coverage today. Stanford Group Company was not in the underwriting syndicate, but the boutique is the first brokerage to initiate coverage. It issued a "Sell" rating. A call into Stanford confirmed the coverage, and a director of equity research confirmed that analyst Michael Nelson picked up coverage as a Sell rating with a $10.00 target.

The underwriter quiet period has not yet ended, so the analysts that got a closer look into the company are still a few weeks out from being able to issue their research calls. We won’t see these notes from underwriters until November. The book runners in the underwriting were Lehman, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns; and co-managers were Raymond James and Thomas Weisel.

Virgin’s carrier partner Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) has also been in the soup lately. Shares are indicated about 1% lower today, but they are down about 10% since the IPO.

Jon C. Ogg
October 18, 2007

Virgin Mobile Sets IPO Terms (VM, S)

247wallst — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:47:26 +0000

The awaited IPO of Virgin Mobile is much closer to coming out. The company has set terms at 27.5 million shares, with 25.55+ million coming from the company itself. Virgin Mobile has taken the proposed ticker of "VM" on NYSE and the proposed pricing range is set at $15.00 to $17.00 per share. The underwriters are listed as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns; and co-managers are listed as Raymond James and Thomas Weisel Partners.

As of June 30, 2007, Virgin claimed 4.83 million customers. Revenues and net loss for the year ended December 31, 2006 were approximately $1.1 Billion and -$36.7 million; Revenues and net income for the six months ended June 30, 2007 were approximately $666.9 million and $26.5 million, respectively. As of June 30, 2007 and December 31, 2006, members’ accumulated deficit was approximately $(614.4) million and $(643.9) million, respectively.

If you aren’t familiar with Virgin, this is U.K. Billionaire Richard Branson’s pay as you go mobile telephone network in the U.S. that was launched as joint venture with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S).

Here was our original coverage on Virgin Mobile. Other recent IPO Filing coverage:

Jon C. Ogg
September 25, 2007

24/7 Wall St. » Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile’s First Analyst Call…A Sell (VM, S)

Virgin Mobile Sets IPO Terms (VM, S)