Krispy Kreme doughnuts priced its initial public offering (IPO) at a lower range than expected, indicating a lukewarm reception from investors when the company’s shares begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange today (July 1).
The company priced 29.4 million shares at $17 U.S. each, below the $21 U.S. to $24 U.S. per share range the company had set earlier. The IPO price valued the chain of coffee and doughnut retail stores at $2.7 billion U.S.
Known for its iconic “hot” doughnuts, Krispy Kreme will start trading during one of the busiest weeks of 2021 for U.S. IPOs, with at least 17 companies scheduled to enter the market this week.
In what was the biggest U.S. listing by a Chinese company since 2014, China's Didi Global debuted on Wednesday (June 30) with a valuation of more than $68 billion U.S.
Krispy Kreme had previously planned to sell about 26.7 million shares, its earlier filing showed. With those terms, it would have raised $640 million U.S. at the top end of the price range.
Krispy Kreme opened its first store in North Carolina in 1937 when it started selling doughnuts in local grocery stores. Their business also includes cookie chain “Insomnia Cookies,” and k-cups for Keurig.
The company sold 1.3 billion doughnuts across 30 countries in fiscal 2020, capping the highest level of sales in the brand's history, with net revenues of $1.1 billion U.S.
However, Krispy Kreme first went public in 2000 but its unit had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2005. Today’s IPO would mark Krispy Kreme's return to U.S. stock markets five years after it was taken private by Keurig parent company JAB Holding Co in a $1.35 billion U.S. deal in 2016.
The company intends to list on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “DNUT”.
