Americold Realty Trust, backed by billionaire investor Ron Burkle, shelved its initial public offering on Thursday due to "market conditions," according to a market source.
The company, which operates chilled warehouses for fruits, vegetables and meats had earlier downsized and delayed the offering. It cut the expected price range to $9 to $11 from $14 to $16 and raised the number of shares it hoped to sell to 60 million from 43 million on Wednesday.
It also delayed the IPO pricing by two days.
Americold is the largest operator of temperature-controlled warehouses in the world, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In March 2008, funds affiliated with Burkle's Yucaipa Cos raised their stake in Americold, buying out the stakes held by Vornado and Morgan Stanley Real Estate affiliate Crescent.
Burkle's other investments are varied. He is a major shareholder in bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. and is in talks to purchase Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax Films.
Atlanta, Georgia-based Americold posted revenue of $761.02 million in 2009 and adjusted funds from operations (FFO) due to common shareholders of $52.16 million. On a pro forma basis revenue was $1.62 billion and adjusted FFO due to common shareholders was $123.74 million.
Americold had planned to use proceeds from the offering, along with a concurrent offering of senior secured notes, to acquire warehouses currently owned by Canada's Versacold International Corp., which is an affiliate of Yucaipa.
After the offering Americold would have owned 175 warehouses, mostly in the United States.
Underwriters on the offering were led by Goldman Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan. The company had planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ACRE.
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