K2M Finally Public, Begins Trading on Nasdaq

Leesburg, Va.-based spinal surgery device company K2M Group Holdings Inc. priced its initial public offering at $15 a share and began trading on Thursday, May 8, with CEO Eric Major ringing the opening Nasdaq bell (see photo).

The company had once touted itself as “the largest private spinal implant company in the world.” The firm is going to have to look for another tagline.

K2M sold 8.8 million shares in its initial public offering trading under the symbol “KTWO” and raised $132 million at the $15 per share price. The opening prices is a little shy of what the company had announced just a few weeks earlier in the range of $16 to $18. K2M closed its first day of trading where it started—$15—with a day’s high of $15.23 and a low of $14.51. It closed Friday at roughly the same level: $14.98.

The company posted a $37.9 million loss last year on revenue of nearly $157.6 million. New York investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe acquired a controlling interest in the company in 2010 and will continue to own a majority of shares in K2M.