Maker of $2,000 Barbecue Grill Traeger Files for U.S. IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Traeger Inc., a maker of fancy barbecue grills, filed to go public in the U.S. -- right after much of the country pulled out grills for July 4 celebrations.

The company, currently named TGPX Holdings I, has put down a listing size of $100 million, a placeholder amount that will likely change, documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed. It is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol COOK.

The company called itself the leading name in wood pellet grilling, a method that cooks food slowly like a smoker. Its highest-end model costs $1,999.99. Some of its products can be connected to a mobile app where users can monitor and control the heat.

Private equity firm AEA Investors, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Trilantic Capital Partners are listed as the biggest shareholders of the company.

Traeger reported $39 million in net income on $236 million in sales in the three months ended March this year, compared to $8 million in net income on $114 million in sales from the same period last year.

The company, a keen advertiser on YouTube cooking shows, said it benefited from the home-cooking boom during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Morgan Stanley, Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Robert W. Baird & Co. and William Blair & Co. are leading the planned offering.

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