Toys 'R' Us and Dunkin' Donuts in line for IPOs?

Posted Aug 22nd 2009 2:20PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Starbucks (SBUX), Private Equity, Target Corp. (TGT), Initial Public Offerings

In the wake of last week's public offering of Dollar General, more IPOs are expected to be coming down the pipeline as private equity firms seek a monetary return on investments made during the boom years. Speculation is that Toys "R" Us and Dunkin' Donuts could be next.

Toys "R" Us Inc. is owned by Bain Capital, KKR, and Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO). The world's leading dedicated toy and baby products retailer was a public company from 1978 until its acquisition by the private equity consortium in July 2005 for $6.6 billion. It has more than 1,500 stores in 33 countries, and its businesses include Babies "R" Us, eToys.com, and FAO Schwarz, the latter two acquired earlier this year. Main competitors include privately owned KB Toys, as well as big-box retailers Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

Dunkin' Donuts is a subsidiary of Dunkin' Brands Inc., which was acquired by Bain Capital, the Carlyle Group, and Thomas H. Lee Partners in 2006. Dunkin' has 15,000 locations (both Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins) in 44 countries, and reported global sales of $6.9 billion in 2008. Nigel Travis, former CEO of Papa John's, became CEO of Dunkin' Brands in January when the former CEO, Jon L. Luther, became Executive Chairman. Main competitors of Dunkin' Donuts include Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. (NYSE: KKD), Starbucks Corp. (NYSE: SBUX), and Tim Hortons Inc. (NYSE: THI).

Other possible IPOs coming from KKR include First Data Corp., HCA, and TDC A/S.

Tags: Bain Capital, Dollar General, Dunkin Donuts, eToys.com, FAO Schwartz, inthenews, IPOs, KKR, Target, TGT, Toys R Us, VNO, Vornado, Wal-Mart, Walmart, WMT

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-23-2009 @ 11:16AM

Dan Barnett said...

Wasn't Toys R Us involved with some sort of bankruptcy issues about the time it was acquired?

8-23-2009 @ 12:34PM

George said...

Wal-Mart was really beating up on Toy R Us a few years back, Toys just could seem to compete with the lower prices of Wal-Mart. I wouldn't go anywhere near a Toys IPO.