Petco plans to go public again almost nine years after two private equity firms bought the pet store operator.
For the purpose of calculating a filing fee, the San Diego company said Monday it expects to raise $100 million through an initial public offering. That amount can change.
The retailer of pets, pet food, supplies and services has around 1,400 stores around the U.S. and 13 in Mexico that are run through a joint venture. Petco says it earned net income of $75 million in its latest fiscal year. Its profits have fallen over the last two years, but have improved over the first half of the current fiscal year. The company's annual revenue grew to $4 billion.
The filing comes shortly after Petco competitor PetSmart was taken private. A group of investors led by the buyout BC Partners acquired PetSmart in March for $8.7 billion. PetSmart had almost 1,400 stores at the time.
Petco, now known as Petco Holdings Inc., was acquired by private equity firms TPG Global and Leonard Green & Partners in October 2006. They paid $29 per share, or around $1.68 billion, at a time when high gas prices were hurting shares of Petco and other pet retailer stocks. The company's stock had lost half its value over the 18 months before the deal was announced.
Those companies and other investors will maintain majority voting power in Petco after its IPO.
