Albertsons files for IPO
BOISE – Supermarket operator Albertsons Cos., the No. 2 U.S. supermarket company whose brands include Safeway, filed Wednesday for an initial public offering of stock.
The Boise company did not say how many shares it would offer, what they would cost or where those shares would trade. It expects to raise $100 million from the offering, though that figure is only an estimate used to calculate a filing fee. Proceeds from the offering would be used to repay debt and for general expenses.
Albertsons closed its $8 billion buyout of Safeway in January, significantly increasing the company’s size. It is now the largest company based in Idaho, measured by revenue and by employment.
Albertsons is owned by a consortium of firms, led by New York private-equity company Cerberus Capital Management.
The original Albertsons chain, which was publicly owned, was broken up and sold in 2006 – to the Cerberus consortium and to Minnesota-based Supervalu.
The chain was reunited in 2013 when Supervalu gave up its quest to turn its stores around, and Cerberus bought them.
Albertsons now employs about 265,000 full- and part-time workers.
Albertsons had revenue of $27.2 billion in fiscal 2014, but the addition of Safeway boosts that figure to $57.5 billion, which makes it the second-largest traditional supermarket chain in the U.S. behind Kroger Inc.
The company said in its filing to the SEC that in fiscal year 2014, sales rose 8.2 percent in the stores Supervalu used to own and 9.1 percent in other Albertsons stores. Two years earlier, before they were acquired, those stores’ sales had dropped 4.8 percent, the company said.
Since January, the company’s workforce also has grown, from 250,000 to 265,000.
Albertsons now operates a total of 2,205 stores in 33 states under 18 names. Safeway locations make up 1,247 of those stores. Other banners under Safeway operations include Vons, Tom Thumb and Randalls. The company also operates 456 Albertsons supermarkets in 16 states. Other retail banners include Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, United Supermarkets, Pavilions and Star Markets.