EarthShell Shares Sink Below IPO in 3rd Day

Shares of EarthShell Corp., a packaging-material maker, fell 13% below the initial stock sale price in their third day of trading. The Santa Barbara-based company fell $2.72 to close at $18.25 on Nasdaq. Earlier, it fell as low as $18. The company and selling shareholders sold 13.2 million shares at $21 each on March 23 to raise $277.2 million. The stock rose 12% in its first day of trading. It is unusual for a company’s shares to fall below their initial sale price in the first days after an IPO. EarthShell closed just below the initial stock sale price Wednesday. The initial stock sale of EarthShell, which is developing an organic packaging material for sandwich containers, cups, plates and bowls, gave the company a market capitalization of about $2.1 billion, with 100 million shares outstanding. As of Dec. 31, EarthShell had lost a total of about $74.2 million since its November 1992 inception. The company hasn’t generated any revenue from operations. EarthShell also said it appointed William F. McLaughlin president and chief operating officer. He is the former president and chief executive of Sweetheart Holdings Inc., an Owings Mills, Md.-based food-service packaging company.