Blue Apron slashes IPO price 34% as Amazon-Whole Foods looms

[NEW YORK] Blue Apron Holdings Inc reduced the price range for its initial public offering by about a third to US$10 to US$11 a share as it works to convince investors to buy in to the meal-kit subscription service.

At the midpoint, that's a 34 per cent cut from the previously marketed stock price range of US$15 to US$17 a piece. The New York-based company will still sell 30 million shares, it said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

The shares are expected to price after the market closes on Wednesday. Blue Apron has had to combat the spectre of a new food-delivery giant: a combined Amazon.com Inc and Whole Foods Market Inc.

On June 16, the e-commerce giant agreed to buy the health-food store, sending grocery stocks tumbling.

The high end of the new deal price range would give Blue Apron a market value of about US$2.1 billion, based on the number of shares to be outstanding after the offering, and raise US$330 million. That's down from a value of US$3.2 billion with an offering size US$510 million.

Blue Apron's listing is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc and Barclays Plc.

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