Last updated on July 13th, 2015 at 03:47 pm
Albertsons Cos. Inc. has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The announcement comes just months after Albertsons merged with Safeway, which was a public company.
Moody’s Investors Service Senior Analyst Mickey Chadha said of the news, “While sooner than we anticipated, Albertson’s S-1 filing detailing its proposed initial public offering demonstrates management’s confidence in the future growth of the company as demonstrated by the improved operating performance across all banners in the year. Although integration and execution risks related to the Safeway acquisition coupled with the high debt burden remain as major risks for the company, we expect the proceeds from the IPO, the final amount of which is yet to be determined, to be used for debt reduction and we therefore view this as a credit positive.”
Goldman, Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint book-running managers and Lazard is acting as a co-manager and IPO advisor for the proposed offering. The proposed offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the proposed offering may be obtained from any of the book-running managers.
