Originally Published MX March/April 2005

COVER STORY

Companies with a solid history of growth are usually a good bet for investors, but few could have foreseen the enthusiasm of the public market for the February 2004 initial public offering (IPO) of Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI; San Antonio, TX). After all, not a single medtech company had dared to go public in the previous year, and analysts were generally skeptical about the willingness of the market to support new issues from the medical device industry.

Figure 1. Share price of Kinetic Concepts Inc. (NYSE: KCI) versus the S&P 500 from KCI's initial public offering in February 2004 through February 2005. (click to enlarge)