BBB Foods Inc., the operator of a discount retailer in Mexico, is looking to raise more than US$400 million in a US initial public offering, the company said.
The holding firm that conducts business through its main subsidiary Tiendas 3B, is planning to sell 28 million shares at between $14.50 and $16.50 each, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The sale would raise as much as $463 million, giving the company a market value of $1.85 billion. Underwriters have an option to buy another 4.2 million shares.
The company, which operates over 2,200 stores across about a dozen states in Mexico, is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp., Scotiabank, and UBS Investment Bank on the potential listing, according to the preliminary prospectus.
BBB Foods would be the first consumer-oriented Mexican company to carry out an IPO anywhere since Becle, the maker of Jose Cuervo tequila, listed locally in 2016. Still, Latin America’s second-largest economy saw $1.2 billion in secondary equity issues in the US and Mexico last year from companies profiting from a boom in factory output, tripling the amount raised in 2022.
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Tiendas 3B was founded by Anthony Hatoum, a Lebanese-American businessman who moved to Mexico about two decades ago to start the discount retailer. Following the business model of German discount chain Aldi, 3B stocks a limited variety of products ranging from snacks and pet food to cleaning products and diapers at competitive costs. The 3B stands for “Bueno, Bonito y Barato,” or “good, nice, and affordable.”
Source: El Financiero
