Sidney, NE-based sporting goods cataloger/retailer Cabela’s raised $156.3 million in its initial public offering.
The company raised its opening share price to $20 from its June 7 announcement of $15-$17 per share. The stock jumped $8, or 40%, to $28 in the first few minutes of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock closed at $26. Cabela’s common stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CAB.”
To raise funds to expand its retail division, Cabela’s is going public. The $1.4 billion cataloger/retailer of outdoor sporting goods filed for an initial public offering on March 23. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange commission, the 43-year-old family-owned business–which currently operates nine stores in Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania–said its goal was to raise $230 million to open new stores.
Started in 1961 from the kitchen table of Dick and Mary Cabela’s home in Chappell, NE, home, the cofounders/owners developed Cabela’s as a catalog marketer of Japanese fishing lures. In the past four years the Sydney, NE-based company has developed a retail arm consisting of tourist-attraction-size stores. The tenth store, which will be 175,000 sq. ft., will open later this year in Wheeling, WV.
Cabela’s has tapped Credit Suisse First Boston and J.P. Morgan as joint lead underwriters and Wachovia Securities, Stephens, and William Blair & Co. as comanagers for the offering.
Catalog Age
has learned that outdoor sporting goods cataloger Cabela’s mailed a new 112-page spin-off catalog, called Cabela’s 2003 Workwear, in August. The catalog sells clothing (including Roughneck, Cabela’s private label brand), footwear, as well as automotive accessories, coveralls, workboots, gloves, flannel shirts, jeans, and other specialty items designed for heavy duty wear, says spokesperson Joe Arterburn.
The spin-off book joins a field of more than 40 different specialty catalogs Cabela’s mails, which focus on such outdoor pursuits as archery, fly-fishing and boating—all in addition to the company’s flagship 500-plus-page Spring and Fall Master catalogs. Cabela’s mails more than 90 million catalogs annually.
Arterburn won’t disclose catalog circulation, but says that the new workwear book was mailed primarily to Cabela’s housefile.
