Private Equity Returns to the Stores

Body Central has raised $65 million in its IPO on the NASDAQ under the symbol BODY after pricing shares at $13 apiece. The apparel retailer sold about 3.3 million of the 5 million shares in the offering and plans to use the net proceeds in part to repay its senior secured credit facility and redeem Series C preferred stock. Selling shareholders offered the remaining 1.6 million shares, including WestView Capital Partners, which reduced its 31.6% stake to 19.8%, and PineBridge Investments, which reduced its 29.8% to 18.7%. The company's stock closed its first trading day even at $13.

74 retailers have been involved in PE deals since the beginning of 2009, according to the PitchBook Platform. So far this year, there have been 35 completed deals, and with 5 more announced and still in play, 2010 is well on its way to surpassing 2009's total deal count of 36. Since the beginning of 2009, PE investors have also completed 21 exits in the industry with an average exit amount of $198.2 million. 47.6% of those exits have occurred through sales to corporations. The remainder is relatively evenly split between sales to other PE investors (5 deals) and IPOs (6). Of the 62 investors who invested in retailers during the same time period, the most active include Catterton Partners (5 deals), Sun Capital Partners (5) and Golden Gate Capital (4).