Optical giant hopes to raise $120 million thorugh IPO

National Vision Holdings, which operates 980 retail stores and 19 consumer websites, made its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month. The company will offer 15.8 million shares of its common stock, with the price expected to be between US$18–20 (AU$23–25.50). If fully subscribed, it could generate as much as US$363 million (AU$462.6 m).US multinational private equity firm KKR & Co acquired National Vision three years ago, and while it had previously been publically listed, its former owners Berkshire Partners took the firm private in 2005. National Vision operations include America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, Vision Centers inside select Walmart stores, and Vista Optical locations inside Fred Meyer stores and on select military bases.{{quote-A:R-W:450-Q:The regulator claims the agreents harmed search engines by distorting ad auctions and reducing the quality of search results.}}Less than one week prior to the IPO announcent, the company elected to pay US$7 million (AU$8.96 m) to settle an antitrust lawsuit levelled by consumers after it, and dozens of other companies, allegedly agreed to restrict the keywords they purchased to trigger pay-per-click advertisents on search engines.National Vision, its subsidiary Arlington Contact Lens Service, and a dozen other contact lens retailers allegedly entered into keyword agreents in response to legal threats by 1-800 Contacts, which is now also facing both a class-action antitrust lawsuit by consumers and prosecution by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).According to the FTC, the convoluted case began when between 2004–2013 1-800 Contacts either sued or threatened to sue at least 15 competitors for allegedly infringing tradark by purchasing the keyword “1-800Contacts” as a trigger for pay-per-click search ads.The regulator claims the agreents harmed search engines by distorting ad auctions and reducing the quality of search results. It also alleges that the agreents resulted in higher prices for consumers as 1-800 Contacts charges more than its competitors, but the agreent meant it was often the only advertiser to appear in search results.However, while the FTC is only prosecuting 1-800 Contacts, the consumers’ lawsuit that affected National Vision targeted all of the companies involved, including other optical giants such as Luxottica, Vision Direct and Walgreens.As part of the settlent agreent, National Vision is also required to provide a host of material to the consumers’ lawyers, including all documents that were given to the FTC.All of the other companies are fighting the lawsuit, and 1-800 Contacts’ general counsel has previously stated that the allegations have “no merit whatsoever.”