Albertsons Companies, a US grocer operating under Albertsons, Safeway, and other banners, raised $800 million by offering 50 million shares at $16, below the range of $18 to $20.
The entire deal was sold by existing shareholders, who had originally planned to sell 65.8 million shares. The deal raised 36% less in proceeds than anticipated. The sellers were likely motivated to get the deal done. Albertsons has been owned by a Cerberus-led private equity consortium since 2006, far longer than most PE holding periods, and had failed to go public in both 2015 when it scrapped an IPO and again in 2018 when an attempted merger with publicly-traded Rite Aid fell apart.
Albertsons ends the IPO market's longest streak of days without a single deal pricing below the range since 2009; every deal since the start of the quarter had priced within or above the range.
Albertsons Companies plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol ACI. BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citi, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Securities, Barclays and Deutsche Bank acted as lead managers on the deal.
