JACKSONVILLE, FL - Winn-Dixie and BI-LO’s parent company, BI-LO Holdings LLC, has decided not to pursue its initial public offering that it filed for in 2013 under the name Southeastern Grocers LLC.
The company did not specify a reason for withdrawing its IPO in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, and BI-LO Holdings spokesman Brian Wright said via email to the Jacksonville Daily Record that the company doesn’t comment on these matters.
When speaking about the reasons the company withdrew its IPO, Francis Gaskins, Research Director at Equities.com, tells Reuters, “With not very exciting topline revenue and growing losses…it’s over leveraged. They don’t have the numbers that investors are interested in.”
The New York Times reports that Winn-Dixie filed for bankruptcy in 2005, emerging a year later. In addition, BI-LO spent a year in Chapter 11 protection from 2009 to 2010. In 2011, BI-LO Holdings purchased Winn-Dixie and joined the two brands, and moved its headquarters to Florida.
In September of 2013, Southeastern Grocers filed for an IPO of up to $500 million and stated that it was looking to repay debts and build working capital, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Jacksonville Daily Record reports that after expanding this year with the acquisition of a group of stores from the Delhaize Group, BI-LO Holdings currently operates 830 supermarkets in eight Southeastern states under the Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixie and Harveys names.
