Albertsons Cos., the U.S. supermarket chain with more than 2,000 stores backed by Cerberus Capital Management, filed an updated prospectus for its initial public offering with a placeholder of $1.84 billion, an amount used to calculate registration fees that may change.
The company also added underwriters including Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and Barclays Plc, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering. Albertsons didn’t indicate the number of shares it plans to sell or a price range.
Last year, Cerberus acquired grocer Safeway Inc. and merged it with Albertsons. That created the second-biggest supermarket chain in America behind Kroger Co., according to PrivCo. In addition to the Albertsons and Safeway brands, the Boise, Idaho- based company operates Vons, Jewel-Osco, United Supermarkets and Pavilions.
Albertsons posted a net loss of $385 million, including the Safeway acquisition, on $57.5 billion in sales in the 53 weeks ended Feb. 28.
Proceeds from the IPO will go toward paying down debt, the prospectus shows. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ABS.
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