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WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. stock closed last month more than 29% higher than its initial public offering price as the wholesaler returned to the public markets after seven years as a private company.
The company’s stock closed at $22 a share, above the IPO price of $17 a share.
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BJ,” the company closed with a market capitalization of about $2.78 billion.
BJ’s filed for the IPO in May, a relatively rare move for a retailer as the industry has struggled in the face of online competition.
The wholesaler was taken private in 2011 by private equity firms Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners in an all-cash deal that was valued at about $2.8 billion and bogged down the company with debt. CVC and Leonard Green are set to retain a roughly 69% stake in BJ’s.
The company offered 37.5 million shares in the offering and had expected the IPO to price between $15 and $17 a share. BJ’s said it would use the proceeds to pay down debt. The company has more than $2.7 billion in fair value of total debt as of May 5, recent regulatory filings show.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are serving as joint lead book-running managers and as representatives of the underwriters for the proposed offering.
