The private equity firms that own Westborough retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club are considering a sale or taking the company public, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The retailer’s owners, CVC Capital Partners of Luxembourg and Leonard Green & Partners of Los Angeles, are hiring investment bankers to consider their options, the Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.
BJ’s has more than 200 locations in 15 states along the East Coast, stretching from Maine to Florida.
CVC Capital Partners and Leonard Green & Partners bought the company in 2011 for an estimated $2.8 billion. At the time, Laura Sen, then the BJ’s president and CEO, called the sale to private owners “the right decision for shareholders.”
“The shareholders were rewarded with a very nice premium to the stock price,” Sen told the Worcester Business Journal.
BJ’s employs nearly 1,000 people locally, more than 3,700 across the state, and more than 25,000 in all, according to the Worcester Business Journal’s Central Mass. 100 list of the area’s largest employers.
If taken public, BJ’s would be among the largest public companies based in Central Massachusetts or MetroWest, along with TJX Companies and Staples of Framingham, and Boston Scientific of Marlborough.
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