Smart & Final, the Southern California-based warehouse-style grocery store chain, filed for an initial public offering Friday afternoon.
In preliminary papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Smart & Final said it planned to raise up to $100 million through the planned offering, though that number is likely just a placeholder until the company calculates registration fees. (Renaissance Capital expects the IPO to fetch at least $300 million.)
Private equity firm Ares Management paid $975 million to acquire a controlling stake in Smart & Final from Apollo Global Management in late-2012.
Smart & Final employs more than 8,100 people and operates 247 grocery and supply stores spread throughout six states in the western U.S., along with another 13 stores in Mexico. The company said Friday that its sales increased 6.5%, to $735 million, in the quarter ending March 23, as compared to the same period last year. Sales for the 2013 fiscal year were up 5.5%, to $3.2 billion, over the previous year, while profits jumped 62.3%, to $8.2 million.
The company, which will trade under the symbol “SFS,” did not disclose how many shares it will sell in its IPO or on which exchange it will list its shares. Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley are listed as lead underwriters on the planned offering.