Century Communities Launches IPO

Century Communities Inc., began trading common stock shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CCS, making it the seventh home builder to go public since January 2013.

Shares of the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company closed on June 18 under its initial asking price of $23 a share finishing at $21.25. Trading volume averaged 4.24 million shares, which would have raised somewhere between $89.9 million to $91.9 million based on stock’s low and high selling prices during its debut trading day. The initial public offering is slated to sell 4.48 million shares with 480,000 shares to be sold to certain shareholders of the company. Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 672,000 shares of common stock to cover any over-allotments. The offering is expected to close June 23.

Century builds single-family, townhomes and flats in Denver, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs, Colo.; Austin and San Antonio, Texas and most recently in Las Vegas. The additional capital will presumably fund expansion into other major metro Western markets.

According to the SEC filing, the company’s total pro forma revenue for 2013 was $246.7 million and annual revenue from home sales grew 78.2 percent from 2012 to $171.1 million. Closings between the two years increased 33.3 percent to 448 homes, and the average sales price last year was $381,994 compared with $285,802 in 2012. The filing follows the wake of the builder last month securing $200 million in senior unsecured notes at 6.87 percent interest, and a 144A private equity placement last year that netted $223.8 million.

Part of the proceeds from the equity placement was used to acquire Jimmy Jacobs Homes last year, which opened Century Communities’ entry into Texas. In April the builder purchased Dunhill Homes’ Las Vegas operations for $165 million. That deal brought Century Communities’ Las Vegas portfolio to 1,849 lots in nine communities. Overall the builder owns and controls 99 communities in three states containing 10,095 lots.

Century Communities, founded in 2002, has been amassing land since 2009 by focusing on buying finished infill lots in master-planned communities from financially distressed banks and builders. Even during the housing market downturn, the builder was rolling out product in communities and growing revenue by more than 70 percent during each of the past two years. Other builders that have gone public since January 2013 are Taylor Morrison, Scottsdale, Ariz.; WCI Communities, Bonita Springs, Fla.; UCP, San Jose, Fla.; William Lyons, Newport Beach, Calif.; Tri Pointe Homes, Irvine, Calif., and LGI Homes, The Woodlands, Texas.