Restaurant hauls in $170M with IPO debut

First Watch shares rose nearly 22% during its first day as a publicly traded company.

By Mark Gordon
| 5:06 p.m. October 1, 2021
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Courtesy. First Watch, founded in 1983 with a model to serve made-to-order breakfast, brunch and lunch using fresh ingredients

Manatee-Sarasota

UNIVERSITY PARK — Breakfast-brunch-lunch chain First Watch debuted as a public company Oct. 1, selling shares at $18 each and raising $170 million.

Wall Street responded well to the IPO, pushing shares up nearly 22% by afternoon trading, and hit a day-high of $23.43 a share before closing at $22.13, up $4.13. The stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol FWRG, for First Watch Restaurant Group. Private Equity firm Advent International, which acquired a majority stake in the east Manatee County-based company in 2017, owns 79.2% of the common stock, according to a statement. Proceeds from the IPO will go to pay back debt, company officials have said in previous statements.