Warby Parker eyes public listing on Wednesday
29/09/2021 13:04
** Warby Parker WRBY.N set to debut on Wednesday in
eyewear maker's direct public listing
** NYSE on Tuesday set WRBY's reference price at $40,
valuing co at roughly $4.5 bln urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nBw85VCjMa
** The reference price is not an offering price to purchase
shares as in a traditional IPO. The opening price will be
determined by buy and sell orders aggregated by NYSE from
broker-dealers
** Shares to begin trading with ticker "WRBY"
** Co, whose existing investors include Tiger Global
Management, T. Rowe Price, and General Catalyst, saw its stock
trade privately this year at $24.53, per SEC filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1504776/000162828021019236/warbyparkerinc424b4.htm#i4f95c48500a34cbeb126545fac303cd9_8649
** Last week, WRBY said https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1504776/000162828021018909/exhibit991-8xk.htm
expects 2021 rev to grow 35%-36% yr/yr to $532-537 mln, and
forecasted adj EBITDA margin of ~4%-5% and new store openings of
30-35, bringing total store count to 155-160
** For 2022, co expects at least 25% rev growth and one to
two percentage point improvement in adj EBITDA margin
** Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co serving as
financial advisors to WRBY, along with Baird, Citigroup, Cowen,
Evercore and Telsey Advisory
** WRBY's direct listing comes on heels of software firm
Amplitude AMPL.O , whose shares on Tuesday opened at $50 vs
their $35 reference price and closed session at $54.80
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QU0PI urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2QU3II
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
((lance.tupper.tr.com@reuters.net
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-332-219-1430))