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Jersey Mike’s, the sandwich chain owned by Blackstone Group, has filed for an initial public offering as it taps buoyant financial markets to list portfolio companies and return cash to investors.
For Blackstone, the listing could result in a large and swift windfall for the $1.3tn in assets alternative investment giant after it acquired a majority stake in Jersey Mike’s at an $8bn valuation after the 2024 deal announcement.
Blackstone was targeting a valuation of about $10bn-$12bn for the restaurant chain, which is popular in the northeastern part of the US for its cheesesteak and Italian cold-cut sandwiches, according to people briefed on the matter. At that valuation, Blackstone will have roughly doubled its money on the 2024 deal, when including nearly $500mn in dividends Jersey Mike’s paid its owners as part of a securitisation of some of its franchise fees.
A quick gain for the firm and co-investors including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority comes at a time when many rival private equity firms have struggled to exit deals and seen their returns stagnate.
Earlier this year, Blackstone president Jonathan Gray told the FT he expected the firm to take a wave of companies public, calling its pipeline of potential listings “one of our largest . . . in history”.
In 2025, Blackstone distributed $34bn in cash on its private equity deals, in part from the listings of medicinal supplies giant Medline Industries and engineering group Legence. It is also planning to take industrial cooling company Copeland public in what may be private equity’s next large windfall that benefits from surging infrastructure spending from AI start-ups.
Blackstone bought a majority stake in Jersey Mike’s from entrepreneur Peter Cancro, who as a teenager worked at its original store on the New Jersey shore. He later acquired the sandwich chain using a loan from his football coach at Point Pleasant High School.
Jersey Mike’s has turned into one of the largest and fastest-growing restaurant chains in the US. It made $724mn in revenue last year, an increase of 11 per cent from the year prior. Same-store sales growth was 3 per cent last year, a slight acceleration from 2024, and the company reported net income of $55mn.
Though Cancro stepped down as chief executive in April 2025, many members of his family were employed by Jersey Mike’s, some collecting pay in the tens of millions of dollars before ultimately departing the company. Cancro also received a $41mn private jet last year from Jersey Mike’s, which it bought for him before Blackstone’s 2024 deal.
Jersey Mike’s plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to pay down part of its $2.1bn debt pile, which was mostly used to finance Blackstone’s acquisition.
