Krispy Kreme shares rose more than 17% despite a disappointing opening trade for the company’s return to the public markets.
On Wednesday night, the doughnut chain priced its initial public offering at $17 per share, well below its planned range of $21 to $24 per share. The stock’s first trade on Thursday afternoon was $16.30 per share, but shares quickly rebounded.
The share offering raised $500 million for the company and gave it an implied valuation of $2.7 billion. Krispy Kreme, which also owns Insomnia Cookies, is trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “DNUT.”
The chain first went public 21 years ago during the dotcom bubble. In 2016, JAB Holding, the investment arm of the Reimann family, took Krispy Kreme private after buying it for $1.35 billion. JAB owns a number of other restaurant businesses, including Panera Bread and Caribou Coffee.
“The transformation that this company has done in the last five years has been incredible,” Krispy Kreme CEO Mike Tattersfield said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “We’ve worked on our brand, we’ve worked on the culture.”
