Metal distributor Earle M. Jorgensen Co., one of Orange County’s largest private companies before shifting its headquarters to Lynwood in late 2003, is set to go public this week.
The company, formerly based in Brea, is looking to raise $300 million. Jorgensen plans to offer 20 million shares at $14 to $16.
The shares are set to trade as “JOR” on the New York Stock Exchange.
New York-based buyout firm Kelso & Co. owns 70% of Jorgensen. Affiliates of Kelso bought Jorgenson in 1990 and combined it with another distributor, Kilsby-Roberts Holding Co.
Jorgenson counts annual sales of $1.5 billion. The company is profitable but is feeling the squeeze of higher prices on the metal tubes, pipes and bars its distributes to automakers and other manufacturers and companies.
The company is named for founder Earle Jorgensen, who died in 1999 at 101. He started the business in 1921 selling steel bars and scrap steel out of a rundown Los Angeles office.
With the growth of the company, Jorgensen became influential in politics. A Republican, he was a close friend of Ronald Reagan and served as a member of the former California governor’s “kitchen cabinet.”
Jorgensen remained a familiar fixture at the company he started, coming to work daily up until his 100th birthday.
The Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren counted Jorgensen as a stepfather after he married Bren’s mother, Marion Jorgensen.
