Apparel Retailer Express Plans IPO

Company Intends to Use Proceeds for Debt Repayment

February 21, 2010 – This past week the Columbus, Ohio based apparel retailer Express filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public through an initial public offering (IPO).  The company indicated that it was seeking to raise up to $200 million. 

Express announced that they plan to use proceeds of the IPO to prepay debt that is due in 2015. As of October 31, 2009, the company had a total of almost $417 million in debt.

According to disclosures made by Express in their SEC filing, the company’s whose market is men and women in their 20s, has 573 stores , and is the sixth-largest specialty retailer of apparel in the United States.

Express started business in 1980 as an experimental division of Limited Brands and was then called Limited Express.

Express was spun-off from Limited Brands in 2007, with a sale of 75 percent of the company Express for $602 million to the private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital..

Express intends to open an average of 30 stores per year in Canada and the United States for each of the next five years.  The company also announced that it intends to open stores overseas and expand its online business. 

The company’s sales in 2008 were $1.7 billion.  Sales for 2009 have not yet been released.

Concerns have been raised regarding the timing of Express’ IPO, due to the sluggish economy affecting retailers of all sizes.  But, in a bit of a contrarian strategy, it’s been suggested that Express could grab market share by being a stronger player, with cash in the bank from the IPO..

The company also announced that it intends to trade under the ticker symbol EXPR.