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.