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Talk of the Bay: Stock offerings have a very happy 2007

The stock market had its ups and downs in 2007, but it turned out to be the best year for new stock offerings since 2000.

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 30, 2007

Stock offerings have a very happy 2007

The stock market had its ups and downs in 2007, but it turned out to be the best year for new stock offerings since 2000. Renaissance Capital says there were 234 IPOs that raised $54-billion. Among them: Tampa-based Switch & Data Facilities Co., which raised about $200-million in a February IPO at $17 a share. Renaissance said the IPO market's driving forces this year have been Chinese companies and U.S. high-tech companies. The bad news: After a first-day pop, most of the stocks didn't do much for shareholders.

Housing stocks? Yeah, suffering

Speaking of stock performance, the holidays have brought big boxes of misery for some of the Tampa Bay area's biggest home builders. Don't believe it? Look at how their stocks are ending the year. Leading builder Pulte Homes is trading at $10, down from an annual high of $36. The numbers are about the same for M/I Homes and Hovnanian/Windward Homes. The drop is even more dire for two builders fending off bankruptcy rumors: Standard-Pacific Corp. and Beazer Homes. Standard's stock has plummeted from $30 to $3.50 the past year. Beazer's slid from a high of $47 to about $7.50. Stock values aren't the full measure of a company, but a plump goose is always preferable to skin and bones.

Wait longer for Grand Bohemian

The long-delayed Grand Bohemian Hotel and Residences has a new, later target opening date: early 2010. The $100-million luxury project planned for downtown St. Petersburg is going through another design change to reflect stagnant condo sales. Developer Richard Kessler wants to cut the number of condos from 52 to 22, while adding 32 hotel rooms for a total of 292. Ground-breaking on the tower - whose site remains a grassy spot behind the new Progress Energy Florida headquarters - is scheduled for next spring, with opening set for the first quarter of 2010, said Mary Kenny, a spokeswoman for Kessler.

Leisure travel loses some of its appeal

Some recent surveys suggest Americans are tapping the brakes on their leisure travel. Travel over the Christmas and New Year's holidays should rise by less than 1 percent to 65.2-million Americans going 50 miles or more from home, says AAA. That's the smallest increase since 2002, when travel tanked in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, a survey by the Conference Board found 45.8 percent of Americans intend to take a vacation in the next six months, down a little from 46.2 percent last year. Travel experts told the Associated Press that Americans may vacation closer to home and take shorter trips to compensate for higher gas prices and the weak dollar.

[Last modified December 28, 2007, 20:08:17]