Back Stop

  

Categories: IPO, Trading, Incorporation

Cammy's Kazoos says: "I want to go public. I want to sell a million shares at $20 per share." Cammy's finds Colson's Awful Underwriters, who says: "We will take you public, friend."

Colson's markets the shares to brokers and offers parts of the deal by July 26, 2019. The big date comes, and 900,000 shares are left. Oops...Colson's agreed to buy all unsold shares. That's a back stop.

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Finance: What is an Underwriter?82 Views

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finance a la shmoop what is an underwriter Undertaker underwriter

00:09

taking your company public well then you need one of these guys and yeah if [Woman writing at a desk]

00:12

things go poorly well then you may need one of these guys but if things go well [Gravestone]

00:16

an underwriter will get to know your company audit your financials give their

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Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to the investment community with whom they

00:27

deal regularly and introduce you as part of their family selling a piece of your

00:32

company to that world you know hedge funds mutual funds private wealthy [List of benefits that come with an underwriter]

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investors such that they are the you know financial wind beneath your wings [Skyscraper flying away]

00:41

for a brief moment in time the underwriter usually an investment bank

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like the vaunted Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley or JP Morgan or UBS or Sumitomo

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will actually themselves own whatever piece of your company you are bringing [Logos for the banks appearing]

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public like if you're selling 18 million shares at 20 bucks the bank's our

01:01

underwriters take a new public will own all 18 million shares having paid you

01:07

$19.60 for them and then turning around five minutes later and selling them for

01:10

20 bucks to John Q invest or making 40 cents a share in spread or markup or in [Spread calculation shown]

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this case 40 times 18 million or 7.2 million dollars just for the pleasure so

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that's an underwriter and if they screw up well yeah and ironically the [Underwriter stamp]

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announcement he'll see in the digital paper is usually in the shape of a

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tombstone announcing everything why a tombstone well because it represents the

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death of ambiguity or confusion in that company's former life as a private one [Gravestone for ambiguity]

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The Undertaker's hopefully have far far away [The Undertaker running away with the word confusion]

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