The IPO  Buzz: KinderCare Prices IPO at $24 – $1 Above Low End

Someone at KinderCare (KLC) must like the sight and sound of 24: KinderCare priced its IPO at $24 – $1 above the low end of its $23-to-$27 range – and sold 24.0 million shares – the number of shares in the prospectus – to raise $576 million on Tuesday night, Oct. 8, 2024. At pricing, KinderCare’s IPO raised $24 million less than it would have – if the deal had been priced at the $25 mid-point of its range. KinderCare’s stock is expected to start trading Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the New York Stock Exchange. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and J.P. Morgan led the joint book-runners’ team. UBS Investment Bank, Baird, BMO Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities and Macquarie Capital also served as book-runners for KinderCare’s IPO. KinderCare plans to use the IPO’s proceeds to pay off about $548.4 million of debt and $7.3 million of related expenses, according to the prospectus. KinderCare’s total debt outstanding was about $1.58 billion as of June 29, 2024. KinderCare, based in the Portland, Oregon, suburb of Lake Oswego, runs over 1,500 early childhood education centers with the capacity to care for over 200,000 children and operates about 900 before- and after-school sites in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Those figures were updated as of June 29, 2024, the prospectus said. KinderCare was founded in 1969. The IPO’s pricing represented KinderCare’s second time at bat. KinderCare abruptly postponed its IPO in November 2021. Partners Group Holding AG, a Swiss private equity firm, will still own the controlling stake in KinderCare after the IPO. KinderCare’s business is profitable. For the 12 months that ended June 29, 2024, KinderCare earned net income of $57.65 million on revenue of $2.59 billion. (For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.) Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board. To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message. Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions. Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions or anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.