Solid Start For Scripps Nets’ Shares
Close Just $40 On First Day Of NYSE Trading
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 7/4/2008 7:01:00 AM
Scripps Networks Interactive began trading as a separate publicly traded company on July 1, opening on the New York Stock Exchange at $38.35, rising as high as $41.23 before closing at $39.79, up nearly 4% ($1.44 each).
SNI had been trading on the when-issued market for about two weeks, ranging in price from $38 to around $43. Its former parent E.W. Scripps Co. also traded when-issued for about two weeks in the $2 to $3 range. E.W. Scripps opened at $3.19 on July 1, closing that day at $3.01, down 18 cents (5.6%).
SNI kept up the pace early Wednesday, hitting $40.28 (up 1.33%) at 10:55 a.m.
Aiding SNI’s cause: It was immediately added to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, so institutions that track the S&P 500 had to buy the stock.
SNI was expected to be the stronger trader of the two, with its high-growth cable network assets like HGTV, Food Network, DIY, Great American Country and Fine Living. E.W. Scripps comprises the company’s slower-growth newspaper and television-station assets.
