Just over four years ago, on March 23, 2012, every HFT's favorite exchange (because it specifically affords them a look at incoming order flow as described by Michael Lewis in Flash Boys), BATS Global Markets, IPO-ed at a price of $16/share (the low end of the range), valuing the company at around $760 million. However, it was not the pricing that was memorable, but what happened later that day when the stock tried to break for trading. As we reported back then, after its first print at $15.75, the stock proceeded to collapse to just above $0 in about 900 milliseconds.

Some, such as Nanex, speculated that the busted IPO may have been the results of a rogue Nasdaq algo (whether with or without intent), one using the notorious Intermarket Sweep Orders. This is what the order-book looked like zoomed very closely in for the first several hundred milliseconds of trading.

Fast forward four years later, it's time for try number two.

Yesterday BATS announced that it has priced its second attempt at going public by pricing its (second) initial public offering at a price to the public of $19.00 per share (this time the high end of the range). The size of the offering has been increased from the initially announced 11,200,000 shares of common stock to 13,300,000 shares of common stock.

However, what is most peculiar about this IPO is that the company will pocket exactly zero of the $252.7 million (before overallotment) in proceeds. All the shares are being sold by selling shareholders. From the release:

The shares offered are being sold by certain Bats stockholders. Certain selling stockholders have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,995,000 shares. Bats will not receive any proceeds from the sale of any shares by the selling stockholders. The offering is expected to close on April 20, 2016, subject to customary closing conditions. The shares of common stock are expected to begin trading on the Bats BZX Exchange on April 15, 2016, under the symbol “BATS.”

Instead, the sellers are key shareholders such as Instinet, Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and KCG Holdings... some of whom also happen to be the offering's underwriters. 

The joint bookrunners are Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, BofA, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs & Co., and J.P. Morgan. We hope they are ready for any eventuality tomorrow when the stock opens for trading, because one thing is certain: if the March 2012 repeats itself, there won't be a lucky third try.