Express, the sixth largest specialty retail apparel brand in the US, filed on Tuesday with the SEC to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering. The Columbus, OH-based company, which primarily targets men and women in their twenties, opened its first store in 1980 in Chicago as a division of Limited Brands. It transitioned into a standalone company in 2007 and is now owned by Golden Gate, a private equity firm based in San Francisco that purchased 75% of the equity interests in Express Holding, LLC for $485 million. Express booked $1.7 billion in sales over the last 12 months and plans to list its common stock under the symbol EXPR. BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters on the deal. Pricing terms and timing were not disclosed.
