Bojangles’ Inc. (NASDAQ: BOJA) priced its initial public offering (IPO) of 7.75 million shares at $19 a share on Thursday, and the stock began trading Friday morning. Shares traded as high as $27 shortly after the stock became available, up more than 40% from the IPO price.
The IPO share price was above the original expected range of $15 to $17 and at the high end of the revised range of $18 to $19 per share. The company also increased the number of shares from an original plan of 6.25 million.
At the IPO, the company’s fully diluted market cap is $750 million, according to IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital. The company’s enterprise value is $993 million. Private equity firm Advent International will retain ownership of about 74% of the company, which it acquired in 2011.
Bojangles’ is a 38-year old chain of 258 company-owned and 377 franchised limited-service restaurants with key markets in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee. Restaurants are located in 10 states, the District of Columbia and Honduras. Restaurants feature Southern cooking and include an all-day breakfast menu.
Joint bookrunners for the IPO included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Securities, Jefferies, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Piper Jaffray, William Blair, KeyBanc Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets. Co-managers are Stephens and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Underwriters have a 30-day option on an additional 1.16 million shares.
Bojangles’ IPO follows that of Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK), which was one of the top five offerings in the first quarter of 2015. Shake Shack originally planned to offer 5 million shares in price range of $14 to $16, but demand for the shares was so high that the IPO range was raised to $17 to $19 and finally priced at $21 a share. Shares got a first day pop of 118.6%.
Bojangles’ stock traded up about 43% at $27.18 shortly after trading began Friday morning, with more than 2.8 million shares already having changed hands.
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