In the first initial public offering by a Chicago company since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, manufacturer Azek said in a regulatory filing this week that it expects to raise as much as $665 million in an offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Fulton Market company registered nearly 35.94 million shares that may be sold at a maximum price of $21 per share, according to its June 8 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Stock sales tend to happen soon after such pricings.
Initial public offerings slowed dramatically amid the financial market volatility sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and state lockdowns. Now, bankers and companies are starting to move ahead with some.
Azek, formerly known as CPG International, is owned largely by the big Los Angeles asset management firm Ares Management and by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, which acquired it in 2013 and moved its headquarters from Scranton, Pa., to Illinois, according to the filing and to prior press releases.
The company sells its composite materials through retailers and distributors for use by contractors in construction of outdoor decks that have a faux wood look. It also produces commercial partition, dressing stall and locker products. Increasingly, it is using plastic waste and recycled materials in its goods.
The company logged a net loss of $20.2 million last year for the fiscal year through Sept. 30, compared with net income of $6.7 million in the prior year, according to the SEC filing. Annual net sales rose 16 percent to $794.2 million for the most recent fiscal year.
Azek, which was founded in 1983 and expanded through acquisitions, is led by CEO Jesse Singh, 54, who joined in 2016 after the retirement of former CEO Eric Jungbluth. Previously, Singh held executive positions at 3M, and earlier in his career worked for RBC Capital Markets, Arthur Andersen Business Consulting and for General Electric, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The company has about 1,540 employees including at plants in Scranton and Aliquippa, Pa.; Wilmington and Ashland, Ohio; and Eagan, Minn., according to the S-1 amended filing.