Americold, the world’s largest owner and operator of temperature-controlled warehouses, on January 9 announced an initial public offering (IPO) of 24,000,000 common shares. They are expected to be priced between $14.00 and $16.00 each.
The company, which formally conducts business as Americold Realty Trust, will grant underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,600,000 common shares. The shares have been approved for listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and, subject to official notice of issuance, will trade under the symbol “COLD.”
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering. Rabo Securities, Baird, Citizens Capital Markets, Raymond James, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, BB&T Capital Markets and BTIG are serving as the co-managers.
The float of the common shares is being made only by means of a preliminary prospectus dated January 9, 2018, a copy of which may be obtained from BoA Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, RBC Capital Markets, or from the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) website at www.sec.gov.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Americold owns and operates more than 160 refrigerated warehouses offering approximately 1 billion cubic feet of storage space, in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Its facilities, which also include joint venture coldstores in China, are an integral component of the supply chain connecting food producers, processors, distributors and retailers to consumers. The company serves over 2,600 customers and employs approximately 11,000 associates worldwide.
Americold’s roots date back to 1903, when Ernest Woodruff merged three cold storage warehouses to form Atlantic Ice & Coal Company. Over the next century and beyond it has grown steadily through mergers and acquisitions of many enterprises, including Atlanta City Brewing Company (later known as Atlanta Brewing and Ice Company), Versacold, Munford, Jackson Atlantic, United Refrigerated Services and Atlas Cold Storage (formerly known as Georgia Freezer).
Fred Boehler has been at the helm of Americold since December of 2015, when he was promoted to the position of president and chief executive officer after serving as president and chief operating officer for 20 months. He initially joined the company as executive vice president and chief operating officer in February of 2013. Prior to that Boehler was a senior vice president of the Minneapolis, Minnesota-headquartered SuperValu grocery retail and wholesale operation.
