By Echo Wang
NEW YORK (Reuters) -BrightSpring Health Services, which is backed by private equity firm KKR & Co (NYSE:KKR), on Thursday priced its initial public offering below its targeted range to raise $633 million.
BrightSpring, which was aiming to price its offering between $15 and $18 apiece, sold about 53.3 million shares at $13 per share. The IPO values BrightSpring at $2.2 billion.
BrightSpring's underwhelming offering could hamper a potential recovery in the market for U.S. IPOs, which was starting to show early signs of a rebound, with some high-profile names expected to go public in the coming weeks.
Amer Sports Inc, the Helsinki-based maker of Wilson tennis rackets and Arc'teryx outdoor clothing, said in a filing on Monday that it is aiming to raise as much as $1.8 billion in its IPO next week.
BrightSpring, a community-based healthcare services firm that focuses on treating patients with complex or chronic medical conditions, previously attempted to go public but those efforts were abandoned in November 2022 due to adverse market conditions caused by the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy tightening.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based company is concurrently raising another $400 million from the sale of a three-year mandatory security at a fixed price of $50 each, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
BrightSpring was sold to KKR in a $1.32 billion deal in 2019, with an affiliate of drugstore chain operator Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) taking a minority stake.
The company provides home health, rehab and hospice care to its patients who require frequent services over long periods of time. It also operates 180 pharmacies across the country.
Goldman Sachs, KKR, Jefferies Financial, Morgan Stanley, UBS Group, Bank of America, Guggenheim Securities and Leerink Partners, are the lead underwriters for the offering.
BrightSpring's shares will begin trading on Friday on the Nasdaq under the symbol BTSG.