Homburg Invest Inc (HIIa.TO), a real estate company operating in Canada, the United States and Europe, said on Tuesday it hoped to raise at least C$160 million ($154 million) in an initial public offering of its Canadian real estate investment trust.

The IPO represents a first step in Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Homburg's plan to spin off its real estate assets into five geographically based companies.

"HII will announce its intentions with respect to subsequent steps in its strategy when they are confirmed," Homburg said in a statement.

The company said the IPO would see it sell at least 16 million units of the REIT at $10.00 each, with an over-allotment option granted to underwriters to buy an additional 2.4 million units. [Read the full article]

Shares of Brazilian credit card company Cielo sank to their lowest level since going public in 2009, and rival Redecard posted its biggest decline since 2008 on Tuesday after Justice Minister Paulo Barreto said in an interview with Bloomberg the government will ask the companies to lower fees charged to consumers.

Cielo (CIEL3.SA), which processes the most debit and credit card transactions in Brazil, dropped 13.8 percent to close at 15.5 reais, the biggest one-day plunge for the stock since the company went public.

Redecard (RDCD3.SA), Cielo's closest rival in Brazil's credit card market, declined 10.7 percent to 28.29 reais, outpacing the 3.2 percent drop in the benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP. It was the biggest daily drop for Redecard since Oct. 22, 2008, when the stock sank 15.4 percent as global markets went into a tailspin after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. [Read the full article]

The Chicago Board Options Exchange, the biggest and oldest U.S. options market, is planning an initial public offering of at least $292 million, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

The planned CBOE offering comes as the U.S. market for IPOs is struggling. The Greek debt crisis and the May 6 unexplained plunge in U.S. stock prices have caused a number of deals to be canceled, postponed or repriced. Some analysts have said there could be a broader dampening effect on new issues.

But as the parent of the last free-standing major North American financial exchange, CBOE Holdings Inc. is likely draw strong interest, analysts said. Shares are expected to start trading on Nasdaq OMX's (NDAQ.O) Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "CBOE" on June 15.

"Everybody knows that exchange offerings have been very hot," said Josef Schuster, founder of Chicago-based IPO research house IPOX Schuster LLC in Chicago. [Read the full article]

Investors in technology companies should get set for a “new normal” when it comes to initial public stock offerings, according to the 451 Group, a technology investment research firm. While the number of technology I.P.O.s is expected to be higher than last year, the amount of money that they could raise will not be anywhere near as high as it was during the boom times.

Technology I.P.O.s have not done that well so far this year, and the return of volatility in the markets isn't helping. Recognizing this, some companies have pulled their applications for initial public offerings, while others have conceded on terms, raising less money and accepting a meager valuation just to get out, the 451 Group said in a report to clients.

Take TeleNav I.P.O. last week. The company, which makes GPS software for mobile devices, had to cut the size of its offering and then priced its stock below the expected range. [Read the full article]