Dive Brief:
- Yesway has gone public in an IPO that raised about $280 million, the convenience retailer announced Tuesday evening.
- Yesway’s Chairman and CEO Tom Trkla rang the opening bell Wednesday morning at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City to celebrate the IPO. Shares are expected to begin trading on Wednesday under the ticker YSWY, and the offering is expected to close on April 23, subject to customary closing conditions, according to the announcement.
- This marks the end of a difficult and drawn-out process for Yesway, which had to call off a previous attempt to go public three years ago. Yesway joins a list of several major U.S. convenience retailers that trade on stock exchanges.
Dive Insight:
During Yesway’s Nasdaq ceremony on Wednesday, Trkla said that as a public company, Yesway will remain focused on expanding its portfolio through new store development and strategic acquisitions in both existing and new markets.
“We believe that becoming a public company will provide us with the opportunity to continue and even accelerate our rapid pace of growth for many years to come,” Trkla said during the ceremony.
Yesway first launched its IPO plans in late 2021, but axed the initiative a year later over market volatility. But the retailer never abandoned its goal to go public, with parent company Brookwood Financial Partners’ initial 10-year investment in Yesway set to expire in 2026. In late 2025, a source close to the company told C-Store Dive that Yesway’s investors had grown frustrated with the lack of activity as the clock ticked on Brookwood’s fund.
Plans were revived last month when Yesway re-filed its IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, noting at the time it intended to make the IPO worth between $280 million and $320 million sometime this year.
As of late Tuesday, Yesway has officially achieved its goal.
A major element to Yesway’s IPO is its plan to open 130 new convenience stores over the next five years. Most of these stores will be new-to-industry builds and will be funded both directly by Yesway and via partnerships with real estate investment trusts and other real estate groups. Yesway said last month that it expects to spend between $40 million and $50 million opening the first six to eight stores this year.
After Yesway closes its deal to sell its 29 c-stores across Iowa and Kansas to Nebraska-based Mega Saver, the retailer will have 419 c-stores across seven states. If it achieves its new growth plans, Yesway will surpass 500 c-stores in the coming years.
