Dunkin' goes public with IPO Tuesday, may raise more than $400 million

Dunkin Brands, the owner of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins is scheduled to go public on NASDAQ Tuesday with an opening price of about $17 a share.

The Massachusetts company's initial public offering is expected to raise over $400 million. Most of the proceeds from the IPO will be used to pay down debt.

Dunkin' Brands plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol DNKN.

The Canton, Massachusetts-based company wants to double the number of Dunkin' Donuts outlets in the United States over the coming 20 years.

Dunkin' Donuts has an extremely loyal following in the United States, where it touts itself as a seller of coffee for the working class. The chain lags bigger rival Starbucks Corp (SBUX) when it comes to U.S. store numbers, but has successfully challenged its bigger rival in the grocery aisle.

Dunkin' Brands, which also owns the Baskin-Robbins ice cream store brand, plans to sell 22.25 million IPO shares at $16 to $18 per share, according to a regulatory filing.

If the IPO price lands at the range's midpoint of $17 per share, Dunkin' Brands' market value would be about $2.15 billion.

Based on those figures, the company's shares would trade at 3.7 times 2010 sales, a richer valuation than Starbucks, which at the close of trade on Monday traded at 2.8 times calendar 2010 sales.