NEW YORK--Shamir Optical Industry's (Nasdaq: SHMR) initial public offering kicked off March 11 with a first offering of 4 million shares of common stock, priced at $14 each. The shares finished the first day of trading at $16, with 2.8 million shares traded.

Going public: Jubilation ensues as Shamir's chairman Giora Ben Zeev (c) and colleagues whoop it up at the end of the first day's trading of their stock on the Nasdaq exchange. At left, Shamir's name and logo overlook Times Square on the Nasdaq building.

Of the 4 million shares in the IPO, 3.4 million were offered by the company and another 600,000 by selling shareholders; the company--parent of Shamir Insight--will not receive proceeds from those 600,000 shares.

Shamir Optical Industry president and chief executive officer Giora Ben-Zeev rang the closing bell of the Nasdaq stock exchange yesterday to celebrate the IPO, accompanied by members of the Shamir Kibbutz, the first kibbutz in history to be listed on the Nasdaq exchange.

According to a registration statement Shamir Optical filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company's largest shareholder is Kibbutz Shamir. Shamir Optical generated about $71.2 million in consolidated revenues in 2004, up 18.6 percent over its 2003 volume, the SEC filing indicated.

The registration statement said uses of the proceeds from the stock sale would include $4 million to $5 million to expand Shamir's U.S. marketing and distribution, $8 million to build a new production facility in Israel, $3.4 million to repay debt, and $2 million to $3 million to expand the company's research and development. Shamir said it also expects to expand in China, India and eastern Europe by developing exclusive relationships with optical labs and distributors there. --Andrew Karp