Fort Capital Partners is pleased to announce that Aritzia Inc. has completed its initial public offering of subordinate voting shares.
The IPO, which was led by CIBC Capital Markets, Merrill Lynch Canada and TD Securities, was priced at $16.00 per share, representing the high end of the marketing range and an enterprise value of approximately $2B.
Aritzia shares trade on the TSX under the symbol ATZ.
Aritzia is a rapidly growing innovative design house and fashion retailer of exclusive brands. The company designs apparel and accessories for its collection of exclusive brands and sells them under the Aritzia banner. Aritzia’s expansive and diverse range of women’s fashion apparel and accessories addresses a broad range of style preferences and lifestyle requirements for women aged 15 to 45. Aritzia is well known and deeply loved by its customers in Canada with growing customer awareness and affinity in the United States and outside of North America. Aritzia aims to delight its customers through an aspirational shopping experience and exceptional customer service that extends across its 75 retail stores and eCommerce business, aritzia.com.
The first significant IPO of the year in Canada utilized a dual-class share structure, with new investors owning subordinate voting shares entitled to one vote per share. Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm that has owned a significant interest in Aritzia for the past 11 years, and founder and CEO Brian Hill will retain multiple voting shares that hold 10 votes each but convert into subordinate voting shares when sold. Exceptional institutional and retail demand allowed the base deal to be upsized by 25%, and with the exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option the offering generated gross proceeds of $460M.
Fort Capital provided strategic advice to Aritzia, Brian Hill and Berkshire Partners with respect to a broad range of matters relating to the structuring and distribution of the IPO.