The much-anticipated initial public offering by Antero Resources Corp. in early October blew through even heightened expectations as an upsized deal. It priced above the initial offering range of $38 to $42 per share and left investors clamoring for shares. The stock opened at $54.15 and closed the first day of trading at $52.46, up 19% from the offering price, and 31% above the $40 mid-point of the initial offering range.

With exercise of the overallotment option, the Antero offering was sized at just over 41 million shares, bringing gross proceeds to more than $1.8 billion. Of this, about $150 million will go to selling shareholders, made up primarily of funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus LLC, Yorktown Partners LLC and Trilantic Capital Partners. With the original deal size of 30 million shares, almost 12% of the shares would have gone into new investors' hands. With the upsized deal, new investors hold a little over 15%.

The Antero offering's strong reception is viewed as encouraging for future C-Corp offerings. Antero intends to use net proceeds to repay outstanding borrowings under its credit facility and to fund a portion of its drilling and development program. The Denver-based company's operations are primarily in the Marcellus as well as the Utica shale.

—Chris Sheehan