Avaya Holdings Corp. shares started trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, the first time the enterprise telecommunications provider has been public in more than a decade, Reuters reported. Avaya spent the past year sorting its financials in a chapter 11 bankruptcy process before listing its shares publicly this week. It was acquired in a leveraged buyout in 2007 for $8.2 billion by Silver Lake Partners LP and TPG Capital LP. One new challenge for Avaya, which now has a market capitalization of about $2.2 billion, as well as $2.9 billion in debt, will be attracting a new set of shareholders after being private for so long. It converted its debt to equity in order to list its shares. “With the debt converting to equity, I would imagine we would transition over the next few months to new value equity shareholders,” said Avaya Chief Executive Jim Chirico.
