By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-World’s largest domain registrar, GoDaddy Incorporated on Wednesday opened its initial public offering (IPO) at a price of $20 per share up 31 percent from the expected $17-$19 range.

The company in a statement on its official website announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 23,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $20.00 per share. This includes 2,500,000 shares of Class A common stock that are being purchased at the initial public offering price by certain entities affiliated with the principal beneficial holders of its Class A common stock.

“All of the shares are being offered by GoDaddy.  In addition, GoDaddy has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,000,000 shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.  The shares of Class A common stock are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 1, 2015, under the symbol “GDDY.” It affirmed. 

Godaddy says Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are acting as lead joint bookrunners for the offering. Barclays Capital Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and RBC Capital Markets, LLC are acting as book-running managers for the offering. KKR Capital Markets LLC, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Piper Jaffray & Co., Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and JMP Securities LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering.

The world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses added that a registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction,” GoDaddy said.