附近上门

went public yet again on Thursday, marking a return to the public markets for a second time after going private. The San Diego-based retailer鈥檚 latest initial public offering is part of a small but growing trend of companies returning to the public markets after being bought out by private equity firms.

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Petco began trading on the on Thursday under the ticker WOOF after the pet supply company raised $864 million through its IPO. The company first went public in February 2002, raising $275 million through its IPO and listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker PETC, according to 附近上门. and took the company private in 2006. The new owners of the company flirted with the idea of taking it public again, even filing initial paperwork to do so in August 2015, but ended up selling Petco to and for $4.6 billion.

Petco鈥檚 not alone in going public a second time after being spun off by a private equity firm. Cybersecurity company went public for a second time in October after being acquired by in 2011 and then spun off in 2017, with TPG and investing in the company. Also in October 2020, Phoenix-based pool supply retailer went public for a second time. The company began trading on the Nasdaq in 1991 before being taken private a few years later by private equity firms, and is now trading again on the Nasdaq under the ticker LESL.

There鈥檚 been a handful of second-time IPOs recently because of favorable market conditions like lower interest rates and private investors seeking yield in their investments, according to Louis Cordone, senior vice president of data strategy at professional services firm AST. The phenomenon is somewhat cyclical, based on how the markets perform, he said.

鈥淚f you bought these companies at a lower price and took them private, now鈥檚 a chance to really make your investment come into the positive that I think is the driver here,鈥� Cordone said. 鈥淭hese companies, these PE firms that take their companies private, they鈥檙e timers.鈥�

The phenomenon tends to occur when equity markets are outperforming, he said: 鈥淚f you think about the 2000s, late ’90s stock bubbles, that was a moment when IPOs were super hot and that was driven by a lot of cash and turning to the equity markets for these yields.鈥澛�

Many companies that have gone public in recent months have seen their shares soar, despite the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Equity markets are doing well because alternative investments are underperforming, according to Endurance Advisory Partners’ managing director Steven Patrick.

Interest rates for cash are at zero and interest rates for bonds are close to zero. If and when interest rates go up, bond prices go down, he said. That asymmetric risk makes stocks more attractive to invest in.

Still, a company going public twice is a relatively rare occurrence, according to Patrick.聽

鈥淎 transaction of going public and for a public company to go private, it鈥檚 often thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of occurrence,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n the lifetime of a company, it鈥檚 once maybe every 20 years.鈥�

COVID-19 stimulus programs have injected fresh cash into the economy, and that money is going into the market looking for yield and equity, Cordone said. It鈥檚 also easier for companies to聽 go public via IPO alternatives like direct listings or a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

Equity markets have 鈥渟kyrocketed鈥� with the extra stimulus, Cordone said, and that, coupled with near-zero percent interest rates, has made going public increasingly attractive to investors.聽

Another example of an acquired company going public now is , the experience management company that was acquired by for $8 billion before it planned to go public in 2018. Last month SAP said that Qualtrics would be spun off for an IPO.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 more likely that we鈥檒l see second IPOs more because we鈥檒l see more total IPOs now because the stock market is doing very, very well,鈥� Patrick added.

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