Bob’s Discount Furniture Rises 11% After $331 Million IPO

(Bloomberg) — Bob’s Discount Furniture Inc., a home furnishings retailer backed by Bain Capital, rose as much as 11% in its trading debut Thursday after the company raised $331 million in its U.S. initial public offering.

The company’s shares traded at $18.58 as of 12:52 a.m. in New York, above its IPO price of $17. This trade gives the company a market cap of $2.42 billion based on shares outstanding.

The Manchester, Connecticut-based company sold 19.45 million shares in its IPO, priced at the bottom of the $17 to $19 range. Bain-advised investment funds and their affiliates were expected to own approximately three-quarters of the outstanding shares following the IPO.

Bob’s joins a busy startup roster of private equity firms’ portfolio companies. Blackstone Inc. backed compressor manufacturer Copeland has submitted confidential paperwork for the listing, while EQT AB’s student transport company First Students Inc. He also said he had selected banks for a potential IPO.

Uncertainty about the resilience of U.S. consumers, the Trump administration’s tariffs, and high interest rates have put pressure on the IPO activity of consumer-focused companies such as retailers and apparel manufacturers.

Bob’s has more than 200 stores in 26 states and plans to expand to more than 500 locations by 2035, according to company records. Bain Capital agreed to acquire the company from Apax Partners and KarpReilly in late 2013.

Founded in 1991, the company’s strategy is to sell furniture below the prices of other competing discount stores. Bob’s’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization were pegged at $164 million; Comparable sales growth in the nine months ended Sept. 28 was almost 11%.

According to his filings, Bob earned a net income of $80.7 million on revenue of $1.72 billion during the same period; It generated net income of $49.3 million over the previous year’s revenue of $1.43 billion.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada and UBS Group AG led the offering. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BOBS.

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