Non-membership warehouse chain Smart & Final has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock.
Smart & Final has been controlled by private equity firm Ares Capital Management, which acquired it from Apollo Capital Management in 2012 for around $975 million. Apollo took the company private in 2007, paying around $813 million from its former majority shareholder, the French retailer Groupe Casino.
Smart & Final in the filing said it was seeking $100 million in the offering but published reports suggested those were preliminary figures and that the company could seek as much as $300 million.
The company said it would use proceeds to retire debt and to fund conversion of existing stores to the Smart & Final Extra! banner, which at 27,000 square feet is around 10,000 larger than legacy Smart & Final stores and offers a wider range of perishable and consumable merchandise. The company operates 81 Extra! stores, 114 legacy Smart & Final stores and 52 Cash & Carry stores geared toward restaurant operators, in California, Arizona and Nevada. Sales in fiscal 2013 increased by 5.5% to $3.2 billion, while net earnings totaled $8.2 million.
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