Restaurant chain Cava poised to debut after IPO tops expectations

Cummins

15/06/2023 13:09

** Cava Group Inc  CAVA.N  set to debut on Thurs after
Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain's IPO exceeds
expectations
    ** Co sold ~14.4 mln shares at $22, $2 above an already
upwardly revised range of $19-$20, for about $318 mln raise
    ** Cava's shares to start trading on the NYSE with ticker
"CAVA"
    ** "Cornerstone investors" Capital International, Capital
Research and T. Rowe Price committed to buying up to $100 mln of
shares, or roughly a third of IPO
    ** Washington, D.C.-based Cava, which opened its first
fast-casual restaurant in 2011 and now has more than 260
locations across 22 states, bought Zoes Kitchen in 2018
    ** It reported $59 mln net loss in fiscal 2022 compared to
$37.4 mln loss in prior year, and $2.1 mln loss in first qtr of
2023 compared to $20 mln loss in yr-ago period, per the
prospectus filing
    ** JP Morgan, Jefferies and Citigroup leading 11-firm
underwriting group on the IPO
    ** The IPO market continues to tiptoe open in 2023. Last
month saw spinoff of Cummins Inc's  CMI.N  Atmus Filtration
Technologies Inc  ATMU.N  and J&J's  JNJ.N  spinoff of its
consumer health unit Kenvue Inc  KVUE.N  in the biggest IPO
since 2021

 (Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
 ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))