Morningstar plans to the final step in transforming itself into a public company on Tuesday. The Chicago-based fund tracker, and now investment advisor, is set to price its shares for trading through a Dutch auction.

The last company to use a Dutch auction for its IPO was Google, which started trading last summer. Although the format of the auction is intended to reduce opening day volatility in a stock, Google shares saw a large gain in its opening day.

Though Morningstar has a strong brand of its own, it does not share Google's earth-changing reputation and its IPO should draw less interest.

All of the 7.6 million shares being by underwriter W.R. Hambrecht are currently owned by Softbank. Those shares control 20 percent of the company. Founder Joe Mansueto will retain his entire 78 percent stake. The shares are expected to fetch $16 to $19 each.

"Under the auction, every investor -- large and small -- will have access to the same information about our company," said Mansueto. "In contrast to traditional IPOs, there are no preferential allocations under the auction format."

Morningstar earned a profit of $8.8 million in 2004 compared to a loss of $11.9 million in 2003. In the fourth quarter it lost $1.1 million on sales of $48.7 million, compared to a loss of $1.8 million on sales of $37.1 million in fourth quarter of 2003.  

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