Shake Shack, a burger chain founded in New York City, has disclosed it expects to price the company’s initial public offering between $14 to $16 per share in a deal that Reuters estimates could value the company at up to $568 million.
The IPO is the latest in the restaurant and grocery sector, which has been met with a ravenous appetite from investors though keeping stocks at their lofty debut prices has been a tougher challenge for many. Shake Shack initially filed plans for its IPO late last year.
The pricing details were an update that Shake Shack provided in its latest regulatory filing, a key step as it moves forward to raise millions of dollars by launching its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The offering of 5 million shares could raise $80 million at the higher price of $16, though there are some nuances with those figures. IPOs cost money to the company that’s going public. And more shares could be released if banking underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares (an option all banks retain when guiding a company to the public market).
Shake Shack — which generated nearly $79 million in so-called “Shack sales” for the first nine months of 2014 — has grown fairly quickly though sales increases at the company’s existing locations have slowed. The company relies heavily on its Manhattan locations, where average volume is almost twice as high as U.S. locations outside of that region. Operating profit margins are also higher.
J.P. Morgan (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are among the banks underwriting the company’s IPO.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
