Freshii shares gain on first day of trading on TSX above IPO price

Freshii Inc, the Canadian health food restaurant chain, climbing 6.3% or 72 cents in its first day of trading.
On Tuesday, the Toronto based company shares closed at $12.22 above its initial offering price of $11.50, trading under the symbol FRII.

The company said it issued about 4.4 million shares from its treasury, while another 6.5 million shares were sold in a secondary offering by existing shareholders, including Jaxii Holdings LLC, a company controlled by Matthew Corrin, Freshii’s founder, chairman and CEO.

Freshii generated gross proceeds of $125.4 million, with the company and others selling shareholders receiving $50.1 million and $75.2 million, respectively.

Corrin opened the first Freshii location in Toronto in 2005 and now had 244 locations in 15 countries and more than 30 states and provinces in North America as of Sept. 2016,.

“We are in the earliest days of what I see possible for the Freshii brand,” Corrin said in a release. “Over the next few years we are going to double our restaurant count, and I believe we will continue to be one of the most compelling growth stories and stocks in North America.”