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BATS Global Markets, the third-biggest U.S. stock exchange, on March 23 called off its plans for an initial public offering, apparently in the wake of a slew of aberrant trades on the day of the IPO that involved both its own stock and that of Apple Inc.
BATS, which first announced plans to go public in May 2011, actually had begun the IPO on March 22, with more than 6 million class A common shares pricing at $16 per share, the company said then in a press release. The IPO was scheduled to be wrapped up by Wednesday, March 28.
However, Joe Ratterman, chairman, president and chief executive officer of BATS, said in a statement issued by the company that calling off the IPO was the “appropriate action” to take. Another company official later confirmed that the IPO was being called off rather than postponed, but declined to discuss the exact reasons behind the decision or whether BATS might have another go at an IPO at some time in the future.
The erroneous trades on the BATS BZX Exchange affected trades in securities in the symbol range A through BF, BATS said in a statement issued in the wake of the problems, but before the company made the decision to abandon the IPO. The glitch included three erroneous trades of Apple stock, one of which triggered a “volatility halt” in that stock.
The problem was rectified in just a few hours, with the erroneous trades broken under BATS’ “clearly erroneous” trade policy, the exchange said. Normal trading in the affected securities resumed by 12:50 p.m. ET on March 23.
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