Grown-up play space Dave & Buster’s sets IPO price range

Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc., the nationwide restaurant-arcade chain for adults, said it expects to price its initial public offering at $12 to $14 a share.

The Dallas-based company, sort of a Chuck E. Cheese for grown-ups, will offer 7.7 million shares, not including the 1.15 million additional shares available to underwriters if they want it.

The IPO could raise a maximum of $123.8 million, according to a new filing Monday.

Dave & Busters was founded in 1982 and owns 59 stores in North America and has a franchisee in Canada. There are seven stores in California.

The average store open more than a year brought in $9.8 million in fiscal 2011.

But the company suffered net losses in each of the past three fiscal years. Dave & Busters has been developing a smaller, less expensive store format as it seeks to expand.

The business traded publicly from 1997 through 2006, when it was bought by a holding company operated by Wellspring Capital Partners and HBK Main Street Investors for $257 million.

In 2010, Dave & Buster’s was sold for $570 million to Oak Hill Capital Management, which will own a 68.3% stake in the company once it goes public. At the high end of the proposed pricing, the company could be valued as high as $395 million.

Dave & Buster’s will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker PLAY.

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