BJ’s Wholesale Club is going public. Again.
BJ’s said Thursday that it filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The company, which operates 215 wholesale membership warehouses on the East Coast, didn’t say how many shares it would offer or what the price range might be. The offering is expected this year.
BJ’s listed a $100 million fundraising target in the filing, but that figure is likely to change after gauging investor demand for its stock.
In its fiscal year ended Feb. 3, BJ’s earned net income of $50.3 million. On a continuing operations basis, earnings per share rose to $3.94 from $3.45. Total revenue totaled $12.75 billion, including $258.6 million in membership fee income. Sales in stores open at least 13 months – a key metric of a retailer’s health – rose 0.8 percent. Excluding gasoline sales, they declined 0.9 percent.
The Westborough, Massachusetts was acquired in 2011 for $2.8 billion by CVC Capital Partners and Leonard Green & Partners, which then took BJ’s private. The buyers reportedly put BJ’s up for sale last year for more than $4 billion but got no takers.
Before going private in the fall of 2011, the retailer rejected an offer of $3 billion from Walmart, according to FactSet.
It plans to use proceeds from the offering to repay debt and for general corporate purposes.
(Copyright (c) 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)