Mattress Firm confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering in the U.S. on Monday, according to a report from Reuters.
South African retail group Steinhoff International Holdings, who owns 50.1% of Houston-based Mattress Firm, started looking at options for the retail giant— including a public listing—as far back as August.
Mattress Firm’s previous IPO was in 2011, and Steinhoff acquired Mattress Firm for $3.8 billion in 2016.
In 2018, Mattress Firm emerged from bankruptcy two months after filing for Chapter 11 protection and closed about 660 underperforming stores—although they initially intended to close up to 700.
The retailer completed its restructuring in 48 days and gained access to $525 million in exit financing. Today they operate around 2,600 stores across the U.S., compared to 3,500 at their peak.
Steve Stagner, former executive chairman, president and CEO of Mattress Firm, said back in 2018 that Mattress Firm’s growth led to “duplicative” stores in many of its markets, which meant the cutting of stores gave the retailer the right store locations to enhance its product offering and drive “disciplined and results-oriented operations.”
And just this month Steinhoff said its total revenues grew 15% in the first nine months of 2021. They also said Mattress Firm’s revenue climbed 29% during the nine-month period to about $3.09 billion.
The Reuters report notes Steinhoff has been making changes to reduce group debt, finance costs, and restructure the debt of some of its units through asset sales and public listings, so Mattress Firm’s IPO isn’t the holding group’s first move.
