Toys "R" Us, the leading global retailer of toys and juvenile products operating 1,363 stores in 34 countries, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $800 million in an initial public offering. The Wayne, NJ-based company, which was founded in 1948, was bought out by private equity giants Bain Capital and KKR and New York-based REIT Vornado Realty Trust for $6.6 billion in 2005. Since then, Toys "R" Us has worked to streamline its business, grow its online functionalities and integrate its Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us stores into a co-branded format. Investors have long anticipated the announcement by the global toy retailer, which booked net earnings of $304 million on $13.6 billion in sales for the 12 months ended January 30th, 2010. Toys "R" Us plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol TOYS. Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse are the lead underwriters on the deal, for which pricing terms and timing were not disclosed.
