Rubber & Plastics News compiled its 10 biggest stories from 2018, and we counted them down in our Dec. 10 print issue. We'll be running them online each workday until the end of the year.
9. Gates goes public
Gates Industrial Corp. P.L.C.—the world's No. 8 global non-tire rubber product manufacturer—went public under the symbol GTES on Jan. 25. The stock started at an initial price of $19 per share, jumped to $19.41, before closing at $18.50 with a total volume of 19.9 million shares, valuing the IPO at about $732 million.
The stock peaked in September at $20.21 per share, but has steadily declined since then and has hovered at about $15 per share since mid-October. Gates said most of the net proceeds will be used to redeem $283.1 million of its 5.75 percent senior notes and an additional number of its 6 percent senior notes, both due in 2022. Anything left over would be used to repay other outstanding indebtedness, which totaled $3.92 billion entering 2018.