UPDATE 2-Southwest Gas unit Centuri Holdings files for US IPO
(Adds details about Centuri in third paragraph and background from fourth to eighth paragraph)
March 22 (Reuters) - Southwest Gas Holdings unit Centuri Holdings plans to go public in the United States, the infrastructure services company said in a filing on Friday, as the IPO market gradually recovers from a nearly two-year lull.
Centuri, which builds and maintains energy networks that power millions of homes and businesses across the U.S. and Canada, did not disclose the size of the offering in its filing.
The 110-year-old company's 2023 revenue rose 5% year-over-year to $2.9 billion, but its net loss widened to $184.5 million from $165 million in the previous year, according to the filing.
Centuri is the latest in a series of companies that have pursued going public over the past few months, encouraged by rising bets of interest-rate cuts this year and a soft landing for the economy.
Earlier on Friday, Walmart-backed digital marketing company
Ibotta
also filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. in a week that saw shares of
and
Astera Labs
soar in their debuts.
Centuri, which employs more than 12,500 and operates across 43 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CTRI".
Last year, parent company Southwest Gas
said
it plans to separate Centuri through an IPO, use the proceeds to cut its debt and reduce its ownership after the launch.
The major energy company had announced the spinoff of Centuri in 2022, while it was locked in a battle with activist investor Carl Icahn over the purchase of MountainWest Pipelines, which it sold later.
Energy companies struck record billion-dollar deals in 2023, including the $50 billion-plus purchases by Exxon Mobil and Chevron of Pioneer Natural Resources and Hess, respectively.
UBS Investment Bank, BofA Securities, J.P.Morgan and Wells Fargo are among the underwriters for Centuri's offering. (Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
