Olaplex ups IPO price, hopes to raise almost $1.5B
The Montecito-based hair care products company Olaplex upped the projected share price of its planned initial public offering on Sept. 28 and now expects to raise as much as $1.46 billion.
Olaplex now plans to price its upcoming IPO at $17 to $19, it said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, up from its earlier estimate of $14 to $16.
Olaplex plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol OLPX. The Nasdaq’s IPO calendar lists an expected date for the offering of Sept. 30.
The company will offer 67 million shares to the public, and the IPO underwriters will have an option to buy another 10 million shares, so the new projected share price puts the IPO in the range of $1.14 billion to $1.46 billion. At the upper end of that range, Olaplex would have a market capitalization of $12.3 billion, making it the fourth largest publicly traded company based in the tri-county region.
The IPO consists entirely of existing shareholders selling their shares, according to Olaplex’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Olaplex’s current majority owner, with 89.3% of the company, is the private equity firm Advent International. Advent bought the company from its founders in 2019 for an undisclosed price. It will still be a majority owner after the IPO, since it plans to sell only a little more than 10% of its share of Olaplex.
Dean and Darcy Christal founded Olaplex in Santa Barbara in 2014. The technology for the company’s hair care products was developed by UCSB chemistry professor Craig Hawker and his former graduate student, Eric Pressly.
The company is completely remote, and was before the pandemic, so it does not have a physical headquarters. Its official headquarters on SEC filings is an address on Coast Village Road in Montecito.
Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, Olaplex said. B of A Securities, Evercore ISI, Jefferies and Raymond James are also acting as joint book-running managers. Cowen, Piper Sandler, Truist Securities, Telsey Advisory Group, Drexel Hamilton and Loop Capital Markets are acting as co-managers.
