GT Solar Picks Wrong Day to Go Public

Not a good debut today for GT Solar, a Merrimack, N.H., company that makes equipment used to manufacture solar wafers, modules and systems. The company went public today at $16.50 a share, selling 30.3 shares, for total proceeds of about $500 million. None of that goes to the company; all of the shares are being sold by GT Solar Holdings, a company owned by the venture firms GFI Energy Venture and Oaktree Capital Management. After the offering, according to the prospectus, the company has 142.4 million shares, for a market cap at the IPO price of $2.35 billion. GT Solar Holdings still owns 74 percent of the company after the offering.

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