Yesway halts decision to go public

Dive Brief:

Convenience-store retailer Yesway has halted its efforts to go public, according to a registration withdrawal request made to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 30.
Yesway said it’s pausing its plans to go public because of “current market conditions,” a representative from the company said in an interview.
This comes after Yesway filed a $100 million public offering with the SEC over a year ago amid rapid growth. Despite the setback, Yesway continues “to be excited” about its future, the representative said.

Dive Insight:

Since its founding in 2015, Fort Worth Texas-based Yesway has become one of the largest c-store chains in the U.S. As of late November, the company operated 425 locations throughout nine states. Its biggest move occurred in November 2019 when it acquired more than 300 stores from Allsup’s Convenience Stores.

Since acquiring Allsups, reaching the public markets has been a main target for Yesway.

“Our primary goal as a private-equity firm is to monetize the investments of our investors, and going public is a method of doing so,” CEO Tom Trkla said in an interview published on the SEC’s website in February.

When Yesway initially filed for an IPO in September 2021, the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering weren’t established. Going public would have made Yesway the sole managing member of its owner, BW Gas & Convenience, while affiliate Brookwood Financial Partners would be able to to “control all of our major corporate decisions,” according to the initial filing.

Amid high inflation and interest rates, IPOs have taken a nosedive compared to last year. U.S.-listed companies raised over $155 billion in proceeds in the first half of 2021 through their IPOs, and through the first half of 2022, that number only hit $4.8 billion, according to data from Ernst & Young and Dealogic.

In retail, the amount of proceeds for IPOs hit $6.7 billion through the first half of last year, while that number only reached $2.7 billion during the same time period of 2022.