Petco Files For IPO

Petco Holdings Inc. filed Monday for an initial public offering, which would be the third in the past three decades for the pet-focused retailer. The San Diego-based chain last left the public markets in a $1.8 billion leveraged buyout in 2006 by Leonard Green & Partners and Texas Pacific Group. The company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission did not identify the exchange on which Petco expects to list nor other plans, such as the number of shares it will sell. Petco's balance sheet showed increasing sales but declining profit, with Petco tallying sales of $4 billion, $3.8 billion and $3.5 billion and net income of $75.3 million, $84.8 million and $98.8 million in the last three fiscal years. Goldman Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan were listed as lead underwriters of the offering, which was reported to be in the works earlier this summer.