Online home goods retailer Wayfair valued at $3 billion in debut
Reuters
Published Oct 02, 2014 11:39AM ET
Updated Oct 02, 2014 11:50AM ET
Online home goods retailer Wayfair valued at $3 billion in debut
(Reuters) - Wayfair Inc's (N:W) shares rose as much as 27 percent in their market debut on Thursday, valuing the online home furnishings retailer at about $3.06 billion.
The company's debut comes after the blockbuster listing of Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (N:BABA) in New York and the strong debut of Europe's largest online fashion retailer Zalando SE (DE:ZALG) in Frankfurt.
Boston-based Wayfair operates websites such as jossandmain.com, dwellstudio.com and birchlane.com, offering more than 7 million products under its own brands.
The U.S. home goods market is expected to grow to $297 billion by 2023 from about $233 billion last year, Wayfair said in a regulatory filing.
Online retailers accounted for about 7 percent of this, the company said.
Wayfair competes mainly with Williams-Sonoma Inc (N:WSM), the operator of potterybarn.com and PBteen.com.
It also competes with brick and mortar retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (O:BBBY), Lowe's Cos Inc (N:LOW) and Target Corp (N:TGT) as well as online sellers including Amazon.com Inc (O:AMZN) and eBay Inc (O:EBAY).
Wayfair's offering of 11 million class A common shares raised about $319 million. The company sold 10.5 million shares in the offering, which was priced at $29 per share, above the expected range of $25-$28.
Wayfair, previously called CSN Stores LLC, was founded in 2002 as an online seller of furniture. At the time, the company retailed its items through hundreds of product-specific websites including bedroomfurniture.com and allbarstools.com.
In 2011, it consolidated its operations and changed its name.
Private equity firm Great Hill Partners holds a 11.04 percent stake in Wayfair, with private equity firms Battery Ventures and HarbourVest Partners being its other shareholders.
Wayfair's revenue rose 52 percent to $915.8 million in 2013. The company's net loss narrowed to $15.5 million from about $21 million a year earlier.
The company's shares were up 22.9 percent at $35.65 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock opened at $36 and hit a high of $37.
Goldman Sachs & Co, BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup are the lead underwriters for the offering.
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(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
Written By: Reuters
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