After more than a year of preparations, Newsmax has officially begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange as of Monday morning.
Earlier this month, the network founded by Chris Ruddy closed its preferred private offering in advance of its initial public offering. During the round of private funding, Newsmax raised more than $75 million of its Regulation A+ round, as well as $225 million in the private preferred offering.
Initially, the company set a target of $150 million in the private round of fundraising. However, after more than 8,000 private investors participated in the private offering, the company saw its proceeds exceed $225 million before agent fees and other expenses.
During an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday morning, Ruddy said the network views itself in a particular light as it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
“We don’t see ourselves as a value stock. We see ourselves as a growth stock,” said Ruddy. “So those multiples are going to be a lot higher. We’ve had 300% revenue growth over the past five years. We’re up almost 30% in revenue over last year.”
When asked what the company plans to do with the influx in cash, Ruddy pointed to three areas of growth for Newsmax.
“We have the cable channel. We’re still building that, growing that, and programming. We have Newsmax 2, our streaming channel. It’s reaching about 15 million people regularly. We have the plus service, which we are going to see as like a competitor in Netflix for family-friendly news and entertainment.”
At the stock’s opening, using the symbol NMAX, it was listed at $14 per share. It immediately jumped to more than $16.50 as of this publication.
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