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Investing.com — The Cava Group is proceeding with its initial public offering, seeking to sell 14,444,444 shares at $17 to $19 each.
The stock offering, led by JPMorgan, comes as fast food restaurants recover from pandemic shutdowns. Kava is a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant chain with 263 locations. In a securities filing on Monday, Cava said its total revenue rose from $45.4 million in fiscal 2016 to $564.1 million in fiscal 2022, a compound annual growth rate of 52.2%. Its total revenue increased from $159.0 million in the first quarter of 2022 to $203.1 million in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 27.7%.
Cava bought Zoe’s Kitchen in 2018 and has since converted 145 of Zoe’s locations into Cava restaurants, as well as opening 51 new CAVA restaurants during this time, it said in a filing. “At the same time, we successfully managed a mid-to-high single-digit inflationary environment and were able to expand CAVA’s profit margin at the CAVA restaurant level to 20.3% in fiscal 2022, despite only increasing the in-restaurant menu price by less than 5%. “.
Pending a successful promotion, Cava will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CAVA.
It’s been a challenging year for stock debuts, with big deals including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) subsidiary of consumer products company Kenvue.
