Dollar General (DG), a KKR-backed small-box discount retailer with 8,700 stores in 35 states, is expected to float its IPO at the end of the week. The company is apparently booming despite, or because of, the economic crisis. According to the Wall Street Journal: "Through the worst of the economic downturn through 2008 and 2009, Dollar General did nothing but grow: Its sales, same store sales, total number of stores, and profits all rose."

Business Overview (from prospectus)

STR Holdings (STRI), a provider of solar module encapsulants and quality assurance services for consumer products, is planning to float its IPO this week. The company originally filed for this IPO back in August of 2008.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

PlainsCapital Bank Holding Company (PCB), the 9th largest bank in Texas which provides banking, mortgage and advisory services, plans to price its IPO this week. It will be the first U.S. bank to go public in two years.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Hyatt Hotels (H), a global upscale hotel operator and developer owned by the Pritzker family, is expected to go public this week. Family squabbles and corporate governance issues cloud an eagerly anticipated IPO.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Duoyuan Printing (DYP), a leading manufacturer of offset printing equipment in China, is expected to price their IPO this week.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Ancestry.com (ACOM), a subscription-based online community for researching family histories, is expected to go public this week. According to the New York Times: "The genealogy Web site hopes investors will provide $100 million in an initial public offering, valuing the whole thing at $572 million. That seems too high for Ancestry to cement a happy legacy with investors."

[Update: ACOM on Thursday priced midrange at $13.50.]

Addus HomeCare (ADUS), a provider of home-based personal care, skilled nursing and rehabilitative therapies, priced their IPO at $10 per share, below range. Shares were trading around $8.90 at today's close.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

The Vitamin Shoppe (VSI) raised $155 million in its IPO yesterday, almost $50 milliion more than it had planned on in its prospectus. It was the first retail IPO since 2007. According to Bloomberg:

The listing is Vitamin Shoppe’s second foray into the IPO market, after the initial share sale of its online unit, VitaminShoppe.com, in October 1999 lost more than 90 percent for investors in less than two years as dot-com stocks collapsed.

Dole Foods' (DOLE) IPO was off to a sluggish start after it started trading Friday. After pricing at $12.50 on Thursday, it sank to $12.19 on Friday. According to the Wall Street Journal,

Dole's poor performance could be attributed to multiple factors: its recent decline in revenue and profits, multiple business risks or the fact that its majority owner sold a $300 million convertible-debt deal just as the initial public offering priced.

ZST Digital Networks (ZSTN), a supplier of digital and optical network equipment to cable system operators in China, is expected to go public this week.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

The RailAmerica (RA) IPO priced at $15 on Monday, below its estimated range of $16-$18. The stock continued to disappoint yesterday when it closed at $13.75. According to The Wall Street Journal, "the deal's performance could make it harder for a growing pipeline of other private-equity-backed companies to negotiate the recovering IPO markets..."

Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG), continues to own a majority stake in RailAmerica and increased the amount of shares it sold in the IPO by one million, for a total of 11.5 million shares. The IPO closes October 16. The company is an owner/operator of short line freight railroads in North America.

China Real Estate Information (CRIC), a spin-off of E-House China's (EJ) real estate information and consulting business. is expected to go public this week. According to the Wall Street Journal, "China Real Estate is in the process of acquiring the online real-estate business of Sina Corp. After that deal is completed, the company will begin generating online-advertising revenue." The deal size could reach $225.9 million.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Omeros (OMER), a biotech company that develops drugs for the treatment of surgery-related inflammation and pain, is expected to go public this week. The company plans to spend the proceeds of its IPO on Phase 3 trials for its lead PharmacoSurgery product candidate.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Mistras Group (MG), a company which provides non-disruptive infrastructure testing to the energy market, is expected to price its IPO this week. This is the company's second try at an IPO. The previous attempt was sunk by the downturn in the markets two years ago.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Verisk Analytics (VRSK), a provider of data, statistical models and tailored analytics for property and casualty insurance firms, is expected to go public this week.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Banco Santander (Brasil) (BSBR), the fourth-largest bank in Brazil and a spin-off of Spanish bank Santander, is expected to go public this week. According to Reuters, at $8.91 billion, this is the largest IPO offer in 18 months.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Echo Global Logistics (ECHO) provides web-based shipping and freight management services. The company is expected to go public this week. The company originally filed for the IPO in April 2008

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Editor's Note: According to Renaissance Capital IPO Home, Ladder Capital has postponed its IPO indefinitely. Read the full news release here.

Ladder Capital Realty Finance (LCG) expects to go public this week. The newly-organized REIT intends to invest primarily in commercial real estate loans.

Education Management (EDMC), a provider of campus-based and online post-secondary education programs, is expected to go public this week. The Pittsburgh-based company had been ready to price its IPO in December 2007 but nixed it once the markets soured.

Business Overview (from prospectus)

Talecris Biotherapeutics (TLCR) plans to go public this week. The biotech company is a maker of plasma-derived protein therapies, formerly for Bayer. According to FierceBiotech, the company

had originally planned to go public back in 2007, before the market meltdown pushed share prices down. But Talecris, based in Research Triangle Park, put that plan aside when it inked a deal to merge with an Australian company. The merger deal, however, fell through after regulators raised antitrust concerns.