Albertsons Companies has filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). The company expects to price its 65.31 million shares in the range of $23 to $26, with an overallotment option for an additional 9.796 million shares. At the maximum price, the entire offering is valued up to roughly $1.953 billion. The company intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ABS.

The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Lazard, Guggenheim Securities, Jefferies, RBC Capital Markets, Wells Fargo, BMO Capital Markets, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Telsey Advisory Group, Academy Securities, Ramirez and Blaylock Beal Van.

Albertsons is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, with both strong local presence and national scale. At the end of February, it operated 2,271 stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 18 well-known banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market and Carrs.

The company operates in 122 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States and it is ranked number one or two by market share in 68% of them. Albertsons provides its customers with a service-oriented shopping experience, including convenient and value-added services through 1,748 pharmacies and 379 adjacent fuel centers. It has approximately 274,000 talented and dedicated employees serving on average more than 34 million customers each week.

During fiscal 2014 and the first, second, third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2015, on a supplemental basis including acquired Safeway, NAI and United stores, identical store sales grew at 4.6%, 4.3%, 5.2%, 5.1% and 4.7%, respectively. At Safeway, prior to the acquisition, the rate of identical store sales growth was 3.0% in fiscal 2014 and, afterward, accelerated in the first, second, third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2015 to 3.8%, 4.9%, 5.6% and 5.8%, respectively.

In the filing, the company described its finances as follows:

For fiscal 2015, we generated net sales of $58.7 billion, Adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion and free cash flow, which we define as Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures, of $1.7 billion. In addition to realizing increased sales, profitability and free cash flow through the implementation of our operating playbook, we expect synergies from the Safeway acquisition to enhance our profitability and free cash flow over the next few years.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay certain existing debt, to pay fees and expenses related to this offering and for general corporate purposes.

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