European Wax Center stock debuts with a 12% gain
European Wax Center Inc. got a warm reception on Wall Street Thursday, as the hair removal company's stock opened 11.8% above its initial public offering price. The Texas-based company raised $156.56 million as it sold 8.92 million shares in the IPO, which priced at $17 a share, while selling shareholders sold 1.68 million shares to raise $28.64 million. Last week, the company said it was offering 9.04 million shares and selling stockholders were offering 1.56 million shares in the IPO, which was expected to price between $15 and $18 a share. On Thursday, the stock's first trade on the Nasdaq exchange was at $19.00 at 11:47 a.m. Eastern for 1.0 million shares. At that price, the company was valued at about $1.2 billion. Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities and Jefferies were the lead underwriters of the IPO. The company recorded net income of $1.1 million on revenue of $36.7 million for the three months ended March 27, after income of $959,000 on revenue of $32.8 million in the same period a year ago. The company went public at a time of renewed investor interest in IPOs, as the Renaissance IPO ETF has rallied 11.7% over the past three months while the S&P 500 has gained 6.1%.
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