Bass Berry & Sims' new Blueprint for IPO pops-out just as some are hoping financial winds are about to shift and fill IPO sails.

The possible lift comes after pipeline sluggishness through 3Q16 left those of us who hadn't decamped to the beach to focus on things like a possible $19.4MM Full Spectrum float, while looking ahead for a Snapchat debut, in 2017.

Using Thomson Reuters data, Fidelity reported in June that US IPOs had raised about $5BN through May, 60% less same period, year earlier.

Upcoming IPOs can be tracked as they approach or withdraw, right here, here and here.

Blueprint provides a digestible overview of the go-public process, and it compares favorably with info available via NYSE, NASDAQ, accounting firms, M&A advisors and others.

Whether you're startup tyro or seasoned C-suiter, reading Blueprint may foster a better sense of what Tennessee executives go through in planting their IPO flags, and why they do it. It could also spare you at least one meeting with lawyers on-the-clock.

Jim Ayers

Also, the timing is good. Here in Nashville, many folks are watching FirstBank (FB Financial Corp., $2.9BN total assets) and its shelf-registered offering, with projected net proceeds projected at $89.1MM-$103MM ($121.7MM aggregate). [Updated: FB announced Sept. 15 its total offering size could hit $128.5MM, including underwriter allocations. On Sept. 16, FBK initially traded at $21.15/shr in an initial offering reported as totaling $111.8MM ]

A projected $55MM of that is to go to its sole pre-IPO shareholder, Jim Ayers, the entrepreneur and philanthropist at the center of the FB story.

Ayers built the company upon his 1986 acquisition of the original bank, which traced its history to 1906. Ayers and is now executive chairman and director. FirstBank announced last week that its roadshow had begun.

Noting the obvious: IPOs can be good businesses for advisors, local or otherwise: FB's joint book-running managers are JP Morgan, UBS Investment Bank and Stifel's Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Other underwriters (S1A, 9/6) include Stephens, Raymond James, Sandler O'Neill. Counsel to FB include attorneys with Alston & Bird; counsel for underwriters are Latham & Watkins. FB's recent auditing has been done by RSM (McGladrey), which succeeded Horne. PR is by McNeely Pigott & Fox in Nashville.

VNC research shows that some Bass Berry attorneys represent FB in some matters, but they are not involved in the current IPO work.

An 2012 piece on IPOs with Bass Berry attorney Page Davidson, is here. A 2006 VNC piece on Bass Berry work for the SEC that was related to the NYSE, is here.

We note, also, that Will Martin is in-house General Counsel for both First Bancorp and FirstBank.

Martin was a co-founder of the Nashville firm now known as Harwell Howard Hyne Gabbert & Manner, and was a partner in Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis. VNC

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