HD Supply Discounts Shares for Huge Secondary Offering

Photo of Chris Lange
By Chris Lange Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

HD Supply Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: HDS) announced Thursday before the U.S. markets opened that it had priced its secondary offering. The offering was priced at $27.30 to the public on a whopping 40.66 million shares. What should stand out here is that this represents close to 20% of the entire stock coming to market today. The June 2013 IPO raised some $957 million after 53.2 million shares were sold at $18 per share. In short, this is a smaller number of shares, but the higher share price generates proceeds of $1.1 billion or so that are going to the selling holders.

Barclays will act as the sole underwriter for this offering. As of November 2, 2014, the company reported that its outstanding shares numbered at 195.79 million. The company does not currently offer a dividend, nor does it expect to in the foreseeable future, according to the filing.

HD Supply itself will not receive any of the proceeds from this $1.1 billion; only the selling stockholders will. The selling stockholders for the offering are:

  • Carlyle Partners V L.P. and related funds offering 18.29 million shares
  • Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Fund VII L.P. and related funds offering 18.29 million shares
  • THD Holdings LLC offering 8.15 million shares

ALSO READ: The 7 Worst Investments of 2014

HD Supply described itself in the filing as:

We are one of the largest industrial distributors in North America. We believe we have leading positions in the three distinct market sectors in which we specialize: Maintenance, Repair & Operations; Infrastructure & Power; and Specialty Construction. We aspire to be the “First Choice” of customers, associates, suppliers and the communities in which we operate. This aspiration drives our relentless focus and is reflected in the customer and market centricity, speed and precision, intense teamwork, process excellence and trusted relationships that define our culture. We believe this aspiration distinguishes us from other distributors and has created value for our shareholders, driven above market growth and delivered attractive returns on invested capital.

Shares of HD Supply closed Wednesday down 1.6% at $28.23. The reaction in the premarket from the announcement had dropped the share price more than 2% to $27.55 — and the shares were down about 1.8% at $27.72 immediately after the opening bell. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $33.00 and a 52-week trading range of $20.59 to $30.46. The market cap is about $5 billion.

ALSO READ: The 20 Most Profitable Companies in the World

Photo of Chris Lange
About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618