MVNO Virgin Mobile USA, a JV between Virgin Group and Sprint Nextel, has filed for an IPO of up to $100 million in stock, reports BusinessWeek. The company intends to use the funds to repay debt and pay an undisclosed amount to Sprint Nextel, which will be a selling stockholder in the IPO. The stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VM. The company has about 4.88 million customers, and made a loss of $36.7 million in 2006.
Rafat adds: This was the outcome everyone hoped for two years ago, but happening now. Virgin Mobile has three classes of common stock. Sprint and the Virgin Group will hold the other two classes, leaving it in control over management and matters requiring stockholder approval, according to the company’s prospectus.
— It has been in losses since its founding in 2002, though its performance has been improving.
— The company posted a net loss of $36.7 million in 2006 from revenue of $1.1 billion.
— It narrowed from a loss of $102.9 million in 2005 from revenue of $990 million. At December 31, Virgin Mobile had total debt of $553.3 million.
— Also, VMUSA paid Sprint Nextel $225 million for the use of its network last year.
— ARPU per month was $21.48 in 2006, down from $24.24 in 2004
— Approximately 17 percent of our service revenues for the year ended December 31, 2006 were from non-voice services, approximately 5 percentage points higher than the wireless industry average of 12 percent, according to the Yankee Group.
— Sugar Mama, Virgin’s program for users to get ad-sponsored minutes, had 336,000 active customers at the end of March.
The full S-1 of of the IPO filing is here.
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