Blue Apron
(Reuters) – Online meal-kit company Blue Apron Holdings slashed the expected pricing range for its initial public offering amid growing concerns about the potential impact from Amazon.com’s deal to buy Whole Foods.
Blue Apron said on Wednesday it expects its initial public offering to be priced between $ 10 and $ 11 per share, down from its previous expectation of $ 15 to $ 17 per share.
The new pricing range implies a valuation of up to $ 2.08 billion, compared with $ 3.2 billion earlier.
Amazon, which said earlier this month it would buy Whole Foods Market Inc in a $ 13.7 billion deal, has dallied with both food delivery, through AmazonFresh, and meal kits, which deliver fresh ingredients and recipes to subscribers.
With Amazon gaining access to Whole Foods’ roughly 400-store footprint, the e-commerce juggernaut would command a distribution network dwarfing that of any meal-kit service.
Blue Apron, named after the uniform that apprentice chefs wear in France, has also worked to increase its automation to help it better compete with rivals.
The company said it expects net proceeds of around $ 292.7 million from the offering at the midpoint of the range.
The offering is expected to be priced on Wednesday and the stock is scheduled to debut on Thursday on the NYSE. (Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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