Legendary guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin and amp manufacturer Fender has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $US200 million initial public offering.
Fender was founded in 1946 by Leo Fender and is synonymous with rock n roll having created the Stratocaster and Telecaster electric guitars in the 50's. The Srat is still one of the most hard wearing rock n roll guitars in the world with it full wooden body that takes and actually improves with repeated banging, pegging and thrashing in a rock n roll environment. Plus they look better with beer and tobacco stains.
Going public will help Fender pay down its debt load of $246.2 million by around $100 million, the rest of the cash will contribute to working capital.
It is not yet known when Fender will go public. In the interim punters can do their homework with the idea of potentially owning a little piece of rock n roll history.
