Bats Global Markets prices IPO at top end of range

Bats Global Markets, an operator of exchanges and services for financial markets, has priced its initial public offering at $19.00 per share – the higher end of the $17.00 to $19.00 price range – raising $252.7m.

The company, which first attempted to go public back in 2012 but cancelled the offering due to a technical glitch, also said it had increased the size of the offer to 13.3m shares from 11.2m.

Bats will trade on one of its own platforms, the BZX Exchange, under the ticker “BATS”.

Selling shareholders include Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are acting as joint bookrunners in the IPO.

Investors will be keeping a close eye on Bats in the hope that a successful debut could provide a boost to the broader IPO market, which saw just nine debuts on US exchanges in the first quarter.