Potbelly Sets IPO Terms, Sandwich Empire Coming

Potbelly Corporation has set its terms for it initial public offering. The sandwich chain, which may have some of the best sandwiches in the country, has confirmed that of the 7.5 million shares being sold, some 7,362,166 shares of its common stock will be sold by the company itself. The selling stockholders are selling the other 137,834 shares, and Potbelly will not receive any sale proceeds from the shares being sold by the selling stockholders.

Pricing terms call for the offering price range of $9.00 and $11.00 per share. Potbelly’s shares will trade on the NASDAQ under the stock symbol “PBPB.” The underwriting syndicate includes BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, R.W. Baird, William Blair, and also Piper Jaffray.

As of September 23, 2013, Potbelly had a domestic base of 295 shops in 18 states and the District of Columbia for a 13% increase over the last twelve months. Of these, the company operated 288 shops and franchisees operated only 7 shops. In addition, there are 12 franchised shops in the Middle East.

The number of shares to be outstanding after the offering are listed as 28,006,541 shares. At the $10 mid-point this would give Potbelly a market cap of roughly $280 million. Its sales grew from $220.57 million in 2010 to $237.9 million in 2011 and to $274.9 million in 2012. Sales in the first half of 2012 were $131.5 million and grew to $146.9 million in the first half of 2013.

FULL SEC FILING