Maybe Too Soon for an IPO Comeback

Expectations for a revival of the initial public offering market might have been premature.

Universal Hospital Services Inc. has cut the asking price for shares in its IPO, reducing the possible proceeds by 21%, to $75 million. The Bloomington, Minn.-based medical equipment rental company’s IPO was initially to raise as much as $95 million in the sale of 5 million shares at $17 to $19 each. On Wednesday, underwriter UBS Warburg cut the asking price for the stock to between $14 and $15.

The IPO is scheduled to be priced today, and the stock would begin trading Friday on Nasdaq under the symbol UHOS.

Universal Hospital would be only the third company to go public in two months, as demand for new stocks had all but dried up even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The company was hoping to ride the coattails of TheraSense Inc. (ticker: THER) and Given Imaging Ltd. (GIVN). Those two medical-equipment makers enjoyed good investor receptions in their offerings on Oct. 12 and Oct. 4, respectively. TheraSense, which went public at $19 a share, closed Wednesday at $24.25; Given went public at $12 a share and rose as high as $13.44, but has since fallen back to $9.15 as of Wednesday.