Chewy Sells 46.5M Shares In IPO

Through an expanded initial public offering (IPO), Chewy Inc. and its investors took in $1.02 billion. The eCommerce pet food and accessories supplier sold 46.5 million shares at a price of $22 a piece, Bloomberg reported.

The company had increased its price range to $21 from $19 for 41.6 million shares following earlier stock marketing of $17 to $19. Chewy is valued in the offering at roughly $8.8 billion through shares in the filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Existing investors sold most of the offering’s shares in the retailer, which is based in Dania Beach, Florida.

The offering encompassed 40.9 million shares sold by a PetSmart wholly-owned subsidiary and included 5.6 million shares being sold by Chewy. And, according to Bloomberg-compiled data, the offering is one of only 10 for eCommerce product retailers to surpass $1 billion around the world. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Allen & Co. and Morgan Stanley led the IPO.

The report comes after news surfaced in April that Chewy filed papers to gear up for an IPO after its acquisition by PetSmart approximately two years ago. The online pet supply retailer took in fiscal 2018 sales of $3.5 billion, which was an increase from 2017’s $2.1 billion.

As reported back in February, U.S. shoppers spend approximately $70 billion on pet food, vet care and supplies, among other services. But they spent only roughly $40 billion 10 years ago. That market, of course, has attracted Amazon, which is gaining a bigger share of consumers’ overall retail spending.

According to a February Wall Street Journal report, Amazon “has an advantage because it can bundle a range of products in the same shipment to offset the high cost of shipping heavy bags of dog food or cat litter.” And estimates from market research firm Packaged Facts indicated that the company brought in roughly $3.3 billion in pet products sales last year per the report at the time.