Albertsons files for IPO

One of the country’s largest supermarket chains, Albertsons, recently announced the company plans to go public.

This is one of the significantly larger initial public offerings this year, particularly during a time when the market for taking companies public has been generally quiet. The offering listed a preliminary $100 million fundraising target, but the figure is expected to change.

Albertsons was founded in 1939 in Boise, Idaho. The company sold itself in 2006 to a group that encompassed Supervalu, CVS and a partnership made up of Cerberus Capital Management and a handful of real estate firms. Seven years later, in 2013, Cerberus purchased several grocery chains, including Albertsons, from Supervalu to the tune of $3 billion.

Last, year, Cerberus and others purchased Safeway for $9.2 billion. This acquisition closed earlier this year, and helped to pave the way for filing in early July. Albertsons reported $27.2 billion in sales and a $1.2 billion loss in its most recent fiscal year, which included the Safeway acquisition. In 2013, the company reported $20 billion in sales and a $1.7 billion profit.