Reuters – Fairway Grocery Chain Prices IPO

High-end grocery store chain Fairway Market priced its initial public offering of 13.7 million Class A shares at $10 to $12 per share as it looked to raise as much as $164 million, Reuters reported. The company, which traces its origins to a fruit and vegetable stand in New York City in the 1930s, operates in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. At the high end of the price range, the company will be valued at about $495 million. The company, majority-owned by private equity firm Sterling Investment Partners, said in August that it had confidentially filed for an IPO.

(Reuters) – High-end grocery store chain Fairway Market priced its initial public offering of 13.7 million Class A shares at $10 to $12 per share as it looked to raise as much as $164 million.

The company, which traces its origins to a fruit and vegetable stand in New York City in the 1930s, operates in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.

At the high end of the price range, the company will be valued at about $495 million.

The company, majority-owned by private equity firm Sterling Investment Partners, said in August that it had confidentially filed for an IPO.

While the company is offering 13.3 million share, its selling shareholders are offering the rest.

Fairway follows in the footsteps of successful public debuts of grocery chains such as Whole Foods Market Inc and Fresh Market Inc, last year.

The company posted a loss of $56.1 million up from a loss of $10 million from the year ago.

Private equity-backed companies queued up to list shares as U.S. stock markets reached record highs, helping boost U.S. IPO volumes by about 65 percent in the first quarter.

Fairway intends to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol “FWM”.

The New York-based company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, Jefferies and William Blair will underwrite its IPO.