It is amazing that we are getting initial public offerings from companies tied to the housing market again. Many market pundits and economists are conveying the message that the housing recovery is going to continue as new home and existing home inventories remain low. Still, it was only four years ago that the United States was embroiled in a housing market meltdown worse than most of us have ever seen.
An IPO filing was made with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week by Masonite International Corp. This company is a large designer and manufacturer of interior and exterior doors for the residential new construction repair, renovation and nonresidential building construction markets.
The company has said that its ticker — DOOR — will be very appropriate, and it will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has a very large underwriting syndicate. The investment banking firms are listed as Deutsche Bank Securities, Barclays, BofA/Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, Wells Fargo Securities, Zelman Partners and Scotiabank.
No terms have been set for the number of shares to be sold or at what price. The filing is merely for up to $150 million of common stock. Masonite did not escape the housing crunch. Its filing shows that it consolidated manufacturing and distribution operations by closing 50 facilities between 2006 and 2012 and also cut its workforce from more than 15,000 employees in 2006 to approximately 9,100 at the end of 2012. The company also outsourced its back office processes and strengthened its balance sheet.
Here is what it said about its finances:
From 2010 to 2012, we grew our net sales from $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion and increased adjusted EBITDA from $81 million to $97 million. We generated net income (loss) of $3 million, $(7) million and $(23) million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively.
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