Virgin Mobile Set to Launch IPO

Virgin Mobile USA announced this week company expectations for their upcoming IPO release. The company has put estimates at $506 million dollars. The disclosure being underwritten by several firms including Merrill Lynch and Bear, Stearns and Co., and Lehamn Brothers comes after the successful $2.2 billion dollar launch of Virgin Mobile UK's IPO Launch.

{mosgoogle left} The lauch will also affect Virgin Mobile partner Sprint Nextel who currently holds on undisclosed stake in the company that some estimates put as high as 50%. Currently Virgin Mobile spends nearly $225 million dollars yearly renting network space from Sprint, and the launch of the IPO is expected to be affected by the performance of Sprint Nextel among other factors.

Other factors affecting the launch will include current Virgin Mobile USA debt estimated at $531.3 million. The company does plan to downpay that amount bringing the total owed to $341 million dollars before the initial public offering. The company also is affected by a profit/loss of negative $36 million dollars in 2006, a number greatly reduced from a 2005 loss of  $103 million dollars which shows a nice turnaround for the company, while controlling a sizeable 15% market share in the pre-paid cellular market. The company has also been adding value to their organization by increasing their data packages to users, the data offered by Virgin Mobile USA currently attracts nearly 18% of the companies revenues and operates on the back of a strong Sprint data network.