Ingram Micro Inc., a major distributor of enterprise information technology products, saw its shares climb more than 12% in their trading debut today.

The company’s initial public offering wrapped up a few hours earlier with a funding haul of $409.2 million. Ingram Micro and its majority shareholder, private equity firm Platinum Equity, sold 18.6 million shares for $22 apiece. That price is on the high end of the $20 to $23 target range the company had set for the offering.

Irvine, California-based Ingram Micro acts as an intermediary between enterprise technology suppliers and their customers. It operates more than 130 logistics centers that process equipment ranging from office printers to data center storage arrays. According to Ingram Micro’s IPO filing, 850 million product units go through its supply chain every year.

In addition to shipping IT equipment to buyers, the company manages hardware returns. Ingram Micro coordinates the logistics of shipping data center equipment back to the supplier. Depending on the state on which a system arrives, it either refurbishes the hardware for resale or recycles it.

The company also has a presence in the software market. It operates an online marketplace that provides access to more than 200 cloud services. According to Ingram Micro’s IPO filing, more than 30,000 customers use the marketplace to manage about 36 million user seats.

Many of the deals that the company processes go through its Xvantage cloud platform. The service allows procurement teams to manage hardware orders, software subscriptions and renewals in one place. Xvantage also offers access to credit for financing large purchases, as well as features that ease tasks such as spend tracking.

Ingram Micro generated adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, of $1.35 billion last year on $48 billion in revenue. Compared with 2022, the company’s EBITDA improved slightly while its sales declined by about $2 billion.

Ingram Micro was publicly traded once before over the course of its five-decade history. The company, which got its start in 1976 as a personal computer distributor, was listed on the NYSE for about 20 years until 2016. Ingram Micro was acquired by Platinum Equity for $7.2 billion.

The company closed this week’s IPO at a valuation of $5.18 billion. It’s believed Ingram Micro had originally sought a higher valuation: Sources told Bloomberg in March that it was targeting a $8 billion market capitalization. Two months later, the paper reported that Ingram Micro was eyeing an even higher $10 billion IPO valuation with the goal of raising more than $1 billion.

Platinum Equity remains Ingram Micro’s controlling shareholder in the wake of its stock market today. Going forward, the IT distributor will focus on boosting profits by making its internal business processes more efficient. As a publicly traded company, Ingram Micro also plans to enhance its Xvantage procurement platform and establish a bigger presence in high-growth areas such as the artificial intelligence market. 

Image: Ingram Micro