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"FORTUNE &amp;#8212; AutoTrader today filed for a $300 million IPO, making it the first Internet company to submit an S-1 since Facebook went public last month.\nNot too many financial details yet, except that prospective shareholders shouldn&amp;#8217;t expect a dividend &amp;#8220;for the foreseeable future.&amp;#8221; AutoTrader blames its pending lack of generosity on creditor agreements that &amp;#8220;significantly restrict&amp;#8221; the Atlanta-based company from paying out dividends.\nSeems reasonable, until you realize that AutoTrader hasn&amp;#8217;t always been such a slave to its creditor agreements. Less than three months ago, the company actually amended its credit facilities to permit a $400 million dividend for existing shareholders Cox Enterprises, Providence Equity Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;#38; Byers. Moreover, the dividend didn&amp;#8217;t come from earnings. Instead, the Atlanta-based company increased its long-term debt from around $884 million to nearly $1.3 billion.\nIn other words: Public shareholders will have to wait for possible dividends, all of which would come from company cash. Unclear just where the threshold is, since AutoTrader is a profitable company with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.\nPrivate shareholders, on the other hand, already got a big payout by adding more debt onto the company&amp;#8217;s balance sheet.\u00A0No wonder certain public market investors have begun taking a much more skeptical look at private equity-backed IPOs&amp;#8230;\nSign up for Dan&amp;#8217;s daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers:\u00A0GetTermSheet.com"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2012/06/18/autotrader-dividends-for-us-not-for-you/>