MiningCo.com Hits Pay Dirt

Autobytel.com has to wait at least another day before going public, but MiningCo.com has hit pay dirt, trading at a 90-percent premium in its debut on the Nasdaq market.

MiningCo.com shares opened trading at 53 - the price at which most investors were able to buy the stock. The stock rose as high as 62 1/4 before settling down. It closed at 47 1/2 with more than 7.7. million shares changing hands. Bear Stearns is the lead underwriter.

The New York company sold 3 million shares at $25 each, above the original $12 to $14 estimated pricing range listed in earlier IPO registration documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

MiningCo.com (MINE) operates an Internet navigation service staffed by hundreds of independent contractors that manage what the company calls GuideSites, each of which focuses on a specific topic.

A look at the company's financial results reveals few surprises: A small but fast-growing revenue base ($3.7 million in 1998 vs. $391,000 in 1997) and ballooning losses ($15.6 million last year compared to $8.6 million in 1997).

The company's Web site was the 30th most-visited in Feburary with 4.7 million unique users, according to Media Metrix. That compares to a No. 29 ranking and 4.2 million users in November.

Meanwhile, the folks at online car sales referral service Autobytel.com (ABTL) will have to wait another day to see if they can best the first-day performance of its rival Autoweb (AWEB). Autoweb went public on Tuesday at $14 a share and ended the day at 40, a gain of 185 percent.

The company is still awaiting final approval from the SEC, according to the syndicate desk of lead underwriter BT Alex. Brown. Autobytel will likely price its 4.5 million share offering Wednesday evening with trading starting on Thursday. The offering price was raised Tuesday to $20 to $22 a share, up from the original $16 to $18 range.

Of course, an extra day shouldn't mean too much for the folks at Autobytel.com, which originally filed for an IPO - sans the dot-com - more than two years ago. Despite the exposure the company received as being the first pure Internet company to advertise on the Super Bowl, Autobytel.com couldn't complete the deal.

In other IPO news:

• OneMain.com, the final of the four Internet deals expected this week, upped the terms of its offering and now expects to sell 8.5 million shares at $20 to $22 each. That compares to original plans for an 8 million share deal at $18 to $20.
• Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati Motor Holdings (DMH) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company last week priced its offering of 9 million American depositary receipts at $31.67 each. Trading on a "when-issued" basis, shares of Ducati closed off 2 percent to 31 1/16.
• E-Loan filed with the SEC for an upcoming stock offering that the Dublin, Calif., company estimated could raise as much as $55.2 million. The online home mortgage shopping service did not se a specific number of shares it planned on selling or an estimated pricing range. Goldman Sachs and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette are co-managing the deal.