Fred Meyer registers $115 million stock offering; for the second time in three years, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts takes retailer's stock to public market. (company profile)

Fred Meyer registers $115 million stock offering

Retail goliath Fred Meyer Inc. is going public for the second time in its history in a move that will make the Portland institution the second largest public company in the metropolitan area.

The $114.8 million offering, underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc., consist of 6.75 million common shares--4.5 million for sale by the company and the rest by selling shareholders. The stock is tentatively priced at between $17 and $19 a share.

If the 6.75 million shares are sold at $17 a share, the offering will generate gross proceeds of $114.75 million--$76.5 million of which will go to Fred Meyer to reduce corporate debt.

Fred Meyer filed its registration statement for the oferring with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, but the stock won't be available to the public until October.

Fred Meyer, which reported sales of almost $1.6 billion and net income of $19.5 million in its most recent fiscal year, operates 93 stores in Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Alaska and Montana. A Fred Meyer store averages 106,800 square feet, with average sales per square foot of $198 for non-food items and $474 for food items. According to company documents, about 65 percent of Fred Meyer's sales are from non-food items.

All told, the company has 9.54 million square feet of retail space, not including the former …