PetSmart’s Chewy wends public at $1 billion blockbuster IPO

Chewy, controlled by private equity-owned PetSmart Inc, had set a price range of $19 to $21 per share, which was raised earlier this week from $17 to $19 per share.

It's raining cats and dogs on Wall Street. According to a company spokeswoman, at $22 per share, the PetSmart, parent organization of Chewy Inc., would receive some $900 million from the sales of the stocks, while Chewy Inc.

During its IPO, Chewy Inc. had sold about 46.5 million shares, about 10 percent up from originally planned 41.6 million shares. The IPO valued the company at $8.8 billion, which is roughly double the $4.45 billion valuation that PetSmart reportedly set previous year in private communications with investors.

Its offering is also the latest in a hectic year for stock-market launches, with the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and the freelance marketplace Fiverr going public this week.

Chewy.com is an online pet food store and its shares just debuted on Nasdaq.

On Wednesday, the Dania Beach, Florida-based company said it increased the offering's projected.

Chewy's IPO should give some financial relief to PetSmart, which is saddled with more than $8 billion of debt due over the next six years.

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Chewy competes with Amazon.com Inc and Blue Buffalo Pet Products, which was acquired by General Mills Inc a year ago. "The company's got a great growth story and they have legions of loyal customers", Cramer said.

Chewy intends to use the proceeds from its offering for "working capital and general corporate purposes".

The public offering follows a heated dispute between PetSmart and its creditors over the transfer of Chewy assets ahead of the IPO. PetSmart was to have 70% of the total shares and 77% of the voting power, the filing shows.

Chewy faces competition from Amazon and Blue Buffalo Pet Products.

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Allen & Co and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are leading the 12-member underwriting team.

Shares of Chewy, which was bought by retailer PetSmart in 2017 for almost $3.4 billion, soared almost 80% to about $39 in early trading Friday.