Aramark Files For Third IPO In Attempt To Pay Down Portion Of $6.1B Debt

Aramark has filed for an IPO for up to $100M in stock as the food-services company "looks to pay down debt," according to Michael Calia of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. It will be Aramark's third IPO. Aramark Chair Joseph Neubauer "led a buyout in 1984 to fight off a hostile takeover," and later "helped bring the company back to public ownership in 2001 before engineering its 2007 buyout with a group of private-equity firms." Monday's filing showed that the firms -- Warburg Pincus, Thomas H. Lee Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors and Goldman Sach's GS Capital Partners unit -- "each own about 21% of the company." Along with Neubauer, who owns about 10% of Aramark, the firms paid nearly $6.3B and took on about $2B of debt in the buyout. Aramark said that it "intends to apply to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/10). The FINANCIAL TIMES' Massoudi & Rappeport noted the IPO will "include primary and secondary shares." Aramark, which generated $13.5B in revenues and $104M in net profits last year, employs "about 250,000 people and operates in 22 countries." The IPO "represents a big moment in the career" of Aramark President & CEO Eric Foss, who previously was PepsiCo CEO. Foss was brought in last year "with the aim of returning Aramark to the public markets" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 9/10).