Firm to Launch Mutual Fund Just for IPOs

Renaissance Capital Corp. is expected to launch as early as next week one of the first mutual funds that will focus almost exclusively on initial public offerings.

The IPO Plus Aftermarket Fund will offer buyers a way to invest in companies as they go public, an area from which small investors traditionally have been excluded.

Greenwich, Conn.-based Renaissance, which provides IPO research to institutional investors, received approval to market the fund from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 18. Renaissance officials declined to comment.

“A fund that is purely IPOs is going to be extremely volatile and could easily lose or gain 50% in six months,” said Russel Kinnel, equity fund editor for Morningstar Inc., a Chicago-based research firm.

The fund will invest at least 65% of its assets in IPOs and the IPO after-market--trading in shares of companies once they’re public--according to the prospectus that was first filed with the SEC last February and revised in December.

The after-market investments will be restricted to companies with limited public ownership or operating history, or companies relatively unknown in U.S. markets, the filing said. The fund also may invest as much as 35% of total assets in non-IPOs.

Renaissance has provided research on IPOs for institutional investors since 1992 and has a database of more than 6,000 firms.