Lineage, one of the largest cold storage and logistics companies in the world, has filed a registration statement to pursue an initial public offering (IPO).
The company announced in a release it is planning to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “LINE.” The company said there can be “no assurance” on when the offering will be completed or what the size of the offering will be.
The company, headquartered in Novi, Michigan, U.S.A. was formerly known as Lineage Logistics but rebranded as Lineage in April 2024. It operates more than 450 cold storage facilities in 18 countries.
Bloomberg first reported Lineage was considering an IPO in September 2023 , and it later reported that the IPO could give the company a valuation of more than USD 30 billion (EUR 28 billion).
“We are fond of saying that our IPO is the opposite of an exit. It is a new beginning,” Lineage co-founders Adam Forste and Kevin Marchetti said in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings made as the company pursues its IPO.
According to the co-founders, the company has a “considerable” amount of private capital from investors who plan to maintain their investments and is under no pressure to go public.
“Becoming a publicly traded company is a momentous decision and not without certain well-known considerations. However, we strongly believe the public market is the best way to deliver growth at scale by providing us with the advantages of a liquid currency and direct access to a lower cost of capital to further fuel our growth flywheel,” the founders said. “Moreover, we believe that if we can remain true to what has made us successful as a private company, we will be even more successful as a publicly traded one.”
Lineage has grown significantly since its founding in 2008, which the co-founders said began with a “small office on Battery Street in San Fransisco.”
“We were inspired by the type of business we would build, the people we would build it with, and the belief we would build it to last. Sixteen years later, Lineage has come a long way in achieving that vision,” they wrote.
In the SEC filings, Lineage revealed that it had revenue of USD 5.34 billion (EUR 4.98 billion) in FY2023, up from USD 4.93 billion (EUR 4.60 billion) in 2022. The company’s net income in FY2023 was a loss of USD 96.2 million (EUR 87.8 million), marking a drop from a loss of USD 76 million (EUR 71 million) in FY2022.
Lineage’s adjusted EBITDA reached USD 1.28 billion (EUR 1.19 billion) in FY2023, up from USD 1.07 billion (EUR 998 million) in FY2022.
The company has been expanding its facilities in both the U.S. and Europe. It opened a new cold-storage facility in Denmark in March 2023, and in October 2023, acquired the assets of Burris Logistics, consisting of facilities in Lakeland, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; McDonough, Georgia; Edmond, Oklahoma; New Castle, Delaware; Waukesha, Wisconsin; and Federalsburg, Maryland.
Earlier this year, Lineage announced it was building a new automated warehouse in Pennsylvania and establishing new cross-border services between the U.S. and Canada. More recently, it announced an expansion in Poland in May with an expansion at its Lębork-based facility, which boosted its pallet space capacity by 30 percent.
On 5 June, it announced another expansion in Hobart, Indiana, adding a new fully automated warehouse spanning 188,000 square feet.
“We are excited for the expansion of our Hobart warehouse, which will allow us to better serve our customers delivering to retail and foodservice markets,” Lineage Chief Integrated Solutions Officer Greg Bryan said. “Not only will this major investment bring more automation and innovation to our network, but it will also help to accelerate our efforts with the Velocities MVC program that has proven successful in optimizing customer shipments and scheduled deliveries."
