At Home Files for IPO

By Chris Lange Published Sep 9, 9:50AM EDT

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At Home Group Inc. has filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No terms were given in the filing, but the offering is valued up to $100, although this number is usually just a placeholder. The company intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HOME.

The underwriters for the offering are Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Evercore ISI, William Blair, Guggenheim Securities and Stifel.

This company is the leading home décor superstore based on the number of its locations and large format stores that it believes dedicate more space per store to home décor than any other player in the industry. At Home is focused on providing the broadest assortment of products for every room, in every style at everyday low prices. The company utilizes its space advantage to out-assort the competition, offering over 50,000 SKUs throughout the stores.

At Home’s differentiated merchandising strategy allows it to identify on-trend products and then value engineer those products to provide desirable aesthetics at attractive price points for customers. Over 70% of net sales are represented by products that are unbranded or private label.

The current store base includes 94 stores across 26 states and 54 markets, averaging over 120,000 square feet per store. The company utilizes a flexible and disciplined real estate strategy that allows it to successfully open and operate stores from 80,000 to 200,000 square feet across a wide range of formats and markets. All of its stores that have been open since the beginning of the year are profitable, and stores that have been open for more than a year average over $6 million in net sales and realize average store-level adjusted EBITDA margins of 28%.

In fiscal year 2015, the company had net sales of $498 million and a net loss of $0.4 million.

In the filing the At Home said:

Based on our internal analysis and research conducted for us by Buxton, a leading real estate analytics firm, we believe that we have the potential to expand to at least 600 stores in the United States over the long term, or over six times our current store base, although we do not currently have an anticipated timeframe to reach this potential. Due in part to our recent investments, our systems, processes and controls should be able to support up to 220 stores with limited additional investment.

The company plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay its indebtedness, as well as for general corporate purposes.

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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.