Southeastern Grocers, which operates about 825 grocery stores in the Southeast under the Winn-Dixie and BI-LO brands, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Tuesday. The company originally filed for a $500 million IPO in September 2013.
Southeastern Grocers serves key metropolitan areas in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee and was the sixth largest conventional supermarket operator in the US based on number of stores at the time of its filing (685). The company's private equity backer, Lone Star Funds (100% stake), had begun a major middle-market grocery acquisition spree when it added Winn-Dixie to its BI-LO portfolio in 2012 for $560 million. In February 2014, it overcame a challenge from the FTC and was allowed to purchase 154 stores from Belgium-based Delhaize for $265 million.
Another LBO'd grocer, Smart and Final Stores (SFS; controlled by early May IPO Ares Management (ARES)), filed in June for an IPO that could raise $300 million. Initial public offerings from leveraged buyouts have generally underperformed in 2014.
The Jacksonville, FL-based company was founded in 1961 and booked $10.1 billion in sales for the 12 months ended September 30, 2013. It had planned to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol SEG. Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, William Blair and Wells Fargo Securities were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.
