Criticom IPO debut expected

NEW YORK - Criticom International was expected to make its initial public offering to the market in mid-March, according to IPOmonitor.com. The company, under the umbrella Integrated Alarm Services Group, plans to raise about $156 million by offering 13 million shares at between $10 and $12 million each. The underwriters include Virginia-based Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. as well as Albany, N.Y.-based McGinn Smith. Criticom, formed a year ago with the mergers of King Central, Monital Signal Corp. and International Dispatch Center, originally announced its plans to go public in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in November. Then, McGinn Smith, a firm that shares executive management with IASG, was the sole underwriter for the offering, which was priced at $100 million, with shares expected to be sold for $9 to $11 each. IASG plans to use the bulk of the proceeds from the sale to reduce its $77 million in debt to such creditors as Key Bank, SLP Capital and various other lenders. Officials at the company said that the transition from a private company to a publicly traded one would be nearly transparent to its dealer customers and would mean more funding for dealer contracts.