NeuStar recognized for IPO, offers a second round

Clearinghouse services provider NeuStar's initial public offering in late June 2005 apparently went well as two financial organizations named it the IPO of the year. The company followed up in November with a second offering and recently gave guidance for its earnings call on Feb. 6.

Renaissance Capital L.L.C. and Thomson Financial's International Financing Review (IFR) both recognized NeuStar as their "IPO of the Year." The company was awarded the honor this week at The IFR Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

NeuStar set its IPO price on June 28, 2005 at $22 per share and offered 27,500,000 shares. Morgan Stanley & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston L.L.C. and J.P. Morgan Securities acted as joint book-running managers and Banc of America Securities LLC was c-lead manager.

Recognized for its track record, robust prospects for growth, seasoned management and corporate governance practices by Renaissance Capital, NeuStar has been on a roll leading up to the award.

The company acquired Foretec Seminars last month, which has a contract with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for secretariat services. NeuStar Secretariat Services, a subsidiary of NeuStar, signed a service agreement with the Internet Society (ISOC) on behalf of the IETF Administrative Support Activity to support the IETF with secretariat functions.

The acquisition, while seemingly unrelated to its role as a third-party clearinghouse provider of services such as local number portability, fits in with NeuStar's role as a trusted third-party facilitator of open standards.

NeuStar priced a second public offering of 20 million Class A shares on Dec. 7, 2005 at $32.30 per share. On Dec. 15, it filed a registration statement with the SEC for a proposed offering using the same managers.

Last week, NeuStar projected full-year revenue for 2006 would be between $296 million and $306 million. The company also released 2005 transaction volumes for LNP. NeuStar saw a 40% increase in volume from 2004 to 2005, growing to 171.6 million transactions. It had 44.9 million in the fourth quarter alone.