Alliance Laundry deflects tariff woes on US$826m IPO
Alliance Laundry made a wrinkle-free debut on the NYSE on Thursday after responding to strong investor demand by agreeing to increase the size of its IPO to US$826m, removing a portion of the sponsor overhang in the process.
The washing machine maker started trading at US$24.50, fell to a session low of US$23.50, and rallied throughout the afternoon to close at US$24.98, 13.5% above offer.
Bank of America, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley upsized the offering to 37.56m shares, including 13.1m by sponsor BDT Capital Partners, at US$22, the top of the US$19–$22 marketing range. That was an upsize from 34.1m shares at launch, with all the additional stock sold sourced from the selling shareholder.
Capital International Investors and Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management helped smooth execution by agreeing upfront to invest US$200m on the offering.
As with many of the recent batch of ECM deals, there is a patriotic attraction to Alliance, though the appeal is not just limited to the US.
“We like it and understand why everyone else likes it,” said one hedge fund manager who participated in the offering. "The big thing that made this attractive to us is they manufacture where they sell. In a world of tariffs, that really helps their operating margins."
Alliance manufactures washing machines and dryers in domestic markets in which it sells. The company has six manufacturing facilities globally, three in the US and one each in the Czech Republic, Thailand and China, allowing it to match input costs with sales prices and avoid having to pay tariffs.
The local source strategy does expose risk of supply chain, particularly components sourced from Mexico and China.
This is a durable business that saw adjusted Ebitda in the first six months of 2025 grow by 11.7% to US$219.1m on a 14.8% increase in revenue to US$836.8m. That is a robust 26.2% Ebitda margin, versus the low-20s in the past few years, despite inflationary headwinds.
About three-quarters of Alliance’s business is North American.
BDT’s stake in Alliance drops to just over 70% from 92.3%, assuming full exercise of the shoe.
The laundry equipment provider will use proceeds the sale of 24.4m new shares to pare a portion of its US$2.1bn of borrowings under a bank loan.