Mattress Firm shares soar in 1st day of trading

[November 19, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Mattress Firm Holding Corp. climbed more than 15 percent Friday in their debut as a publicly traded company.

The Houston-based retailer and its franchisees run 757 stores in 25 states.

Its stock rose $3, or 15.8 percent, to close at $22 Friday on the Nasdaq.

The Houston company raised about $105.6 million after pricing its initial public offering of almost 5.6 million shares at $19 per share. The price was at the top of its expected range of $17 to $19 each.

Mattress Firm said it will use most of the offering's net proceeds -- about $95 million after expenses -- to repay $84.4 million in debt and pay fees to its biggest shareholder, Boston private equity firm J.W. Childs. The remaining funds will be under for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

The underwriters may buy another 833,333 shares if there's more demand for the offering.

Mattress Firm's competitors include national department stores that offer bedding, like Macy's Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp., warehouse clubs such as Costco Wholesale Corp., regional bedding chains and factory mattress stores such as Original Mattress.

The company's stock is trading under the "MFRM" ticker symbol.

[Associated Press]

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