Performance Food Group Co. has commenced an initial public offering of 14,500,000 shares of its common stock. PFGC is offering 12,777,325 shares and certain selling stockholders are offering 1,722,675 shares. The initial public offering price is currently expected to be between $22.00 and $25.00 per share. Certain selling stockholders have also granted the underwriters a 30- day option to purchase up to 2,175,000 additional shares at the initial public offering price. According to Bloomberg, the offering could fetch $362.5 million.
PFGC’s common stock has been approved for listing on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PFGC.” Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Barclays Capital Inc., Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Blackstone Capital Markets, BB&T Capital Markets, Guggenheim Securities and Macquarie Capital are acting as co-managers for the offering. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective.
Editors Insight: A year ago, some people thought the broadline foodservice distribution market was going to be monopolized by a merger of the two largest players, Sysco Corp. and US Foods Inc. The federal government was among those holding this view, as it blocked the merger. Today’s market looks different.
This public offering by Performance Food Group, the third biggest broadliner, will strengthen its market position.
In addition to the three biggest players, there are a number of strong regional and independent foodservice distributors.
Foodservice distributors need to be better capitalized in today’s foodservice market on account of rising costs and new challenges. Today’s consumer demands immediacy, variety and freshness, requiring an integrated, collaborative foodservice supply chain.
The October Food Logistics will explore how foodservice distributors and other players in the foodservice supply chain are addressing these challenges. 9-23-15 By Elliot Maras
