Week in Review: The Container Store, Dodd-Frank, and PwC

Happy Friday, all. The IPO market is closing on a high note — with strong performance out of the gate from both The Container Store and Qunar. This morning, the Container Store went public with its initial public offering of 12.5 million shares at $18 apiece, raising $225 million in aggregate.  The per-share price was well above the projected price range of $14 to $16 per share. Qunar, a Chinese classified ad website, has seen similarly strong performance. However, it is still important to weigh the pros and cons of going public.

In other news, PE firms are getting creative with fundraising efforts, the Dodd-Frank Act is taking root, and PwC bought Booz & Co.

Opinions:

• How investment banks explain poor Q3 performance
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger’s best advice
• Private equity firms are getting creative in competition for capital
• 5 reasons why deals fail
• How to value your company in 20 minutes
• It’s a good time to buy (or sell) a business
• Borrowing without banks
• The most expensive word in banking? “Relationship”
• How to survive a merger
• Dodd-Frank is indeed taking root
• How to identify attractive carve out opportunities

Transactions:

• PwC buys Booz & Co to expand advisory services
• Babson Capital helps High Road acquire SMB Machinery
• Summit Partners acquires minority stake in SMS
• iFinix acquires Beach City Entertainment
• Sheridan Legacy Group acquires Progenicare
• PE-backed World Data Products acquires Infinity Data Solutions

Member Spotlight:

Monarch Bay Securities has added two veteran M&A professionals, Kevin Shultz and Richard Braun, to its M&A team. “We’re seeing this M&A boom as well as very strong demand for growth capital”, explained David Walters, one of Monarch Bay’s founders. “In order to serve our clients, we look for very experienced professionals like Kevin and Rick to join our team.” Read the full announcement here.

Founded in 2006, Monarch Bay provides a full array of corporate finance, third party research, and sales and trading to lower middle market companies. The firm joined Axial in 2012.