Tim Hortons IPO going for $21-$23 a share

Tim Hortons wants to raise more than $600 million in its initial public offering, according to documents filed with U.S. securities regulators.

The iconic Canadian doughnut and coffee shop said it plans to issue 29 million shares, priced between $21 and $23, according to a prospectus filed on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

At those prices, the IPO would be worth between $609 million and $667 million Cdn.

The IPO is scheduled to go ahead in March.

The lead underwriters are Goldman, Sachs & Co., JPMorgan, RBC Capital Markets and Scotia Capital.

Under the plan, the stock will be listed on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges under the symbol THI. The TSX has already given conditional approval to the listing.

Wendy's International Inc. will continue to own 84.65 per cent of Tim Hortons' outstanding shares, or 82.75 per cent if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full.

The company said proceeds from the IPO will repay debt owed to Wendy's.

Wendy's share price (NYSE:WEN) fell 76 cents to $57.90 US on the New York Stock Exchange by Tuesday's close.

The coffee and doughnut chain was founded in 1964 by Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Tim Horton and Ron Joyce, a former Hamilton police officer and franchisee of the first store. Horton later died in a car accident after his Italian sports car hit a bridge abutment on Ontario's Queen Elizabeth Way.

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The coffee and doughnut chain was bought by Wendy's in 1995 in a deal worth $580 million Cdn. At the time, the private Canadian company had 1,000 outlets across Canada and reported sales in 1994 of $600 million.

In 2005, Tim Hortons earned a profit of $191.1 million on sales of $1.48 billion.

Tim Hortons has proved highly successful in recent years. It now has more outlets in Canada than the McDonald's hamburger chain, and is growing faster than Wendy's in both the U.S. and Canadian markets.