Southeastern Grocers Formally Withdraws IPO

Southeastern Grocers has officially pulled the plug on plans to go public nine months after it announced it would delay an IPO launched in 2020. 

The grocery chain filed a letter Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting the SEC "consent to the withdrawal ... of its Registration Statement on Form S-1. The company is applying for withdrawal of the Registration Statement because the company has determined not to pursue the contemplated offering at this time."

In January Southeastern Grocers Inc. postponed its initial public stock offering a week after providing a price range of $14-$16 for 8.9 million shares. While providing no specific reason for the delay, the grocer said that it would “continue to evaluate the timing for the proposed offering as market conditions develop.”

The company had filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed sale of its common stock, but the statement had not yet become effective.

In September 2020, Southeastern Grocers said it was exploring an IPO through an SEC filing that it said at the time would “help enable [it] to make the decision to become publicly traded, subject to market and other conditions.”

Noting that the postponement marked the second time in recent years that the company had pulled an IPO, Reuters reported that Southeastern Grocers’ decision this time was motivated by “a lack of demand at the price range it was targeting,” citing an unnamed source “familiar with the matter.” The company withdrew its previous IPO in 2014.

Jacksonville, Florida-based Southeastern Grocers is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the United States, with grocery stores, liquor stores and in-store pharmacies serving communities throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company is No. 34 on The PG 100, PG’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.