OceanaGold’s stabilization fund expires today

OceanaGold PH [OGP 15.18, up 7.0%; 112% avgVol] [link] gave the exchange the required advanced notice (one day) that it would be concluding price stabilization activities on May 23 (today), 20 days ahead of the scheduled expiration date of June 12. No reason for the early closure was given.

MB bottom-line: This is a first for me. I’ve never seen an IPO end its stabilization fund just 10 days into its post-IPO period. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of stabilization funds blow the vast majority of their cash in the first week trying to keep the price pinned as close as possible to the offer price, but I’ve never seen a company go ahead and just close the fund 20 days early. Here, OGP disclosed a few days ago that its stabilization agent had purchased 7.4 million shares in the first week of OGP’s life, but that’s only about 17% of its stabilization budget. Kind of a head-scratcher, but maybe someone out there in the banking industry has some context that would help make this move make more sense to us retail plebs?

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