PPD Inc. is looking to raise up to $1.6 billion in its initial public offering, according to the company, which announced terms of its IPO on Monday.

The Wilmington-based contract research organization said it would offer 60 million shares of its common stock at a price point expected between $24 and $27 per share, which could value the company as much as $9.2 billion.

Of the 339.4 million outstanding shares after the company goes public, more than 279 million shares are held by existing sponsors, including top stockholders: Hellman & Friedman investors (56.7%), The Carlyle Group Inc. investors (23.8%), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (9.2%) and an affiliate of GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (9.2%).

David Simmons, PPD’s chairman and CEO, has 1.1% of those shares.

The company reported its estimated 2019 year-end revenue, which is not yet final, at $4 billion, with its Clinical Development Services division accounting for $2.5 billion.

Last year through September, PPD’s total revenue was reported at nearly $3 billion. Its year-end revenue was about $3.8 billion in 2018 and just over $3 billion in 2017.

PPD’s total enterprise value was just over $9 billion in 2017, when it closed on a recapitalization deal with the GIC affiliate and the subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which were made direct investors of the company.

Private equity firms The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman bought PPD in 2011 for about $3.9 billion, turning it from a publicly traded company to a privately held company.

In November, however, PPD Inc. filed a notice with the SEC for the proposal for an initial public offering. It applied with the SEC earlier this month to have its common stock approved for listing on Nasdaq under the symbol PPD.

“Applicable securities laws restrict further comment at this time," Ned Glascock, a company spokesman, said in an email Monday.

"PPD intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with cash on hand, to redeem in full its 7.625%/8.375% Senior PIK Toggle Notes due 2022 and 7.75%/8.50% Senior PIK Toggle Notes due 2022, in each case, plus redemption premium and accrued and unpaid interest thereon, and any remainder for general corporate purposes," stated the Monday release.

The offering is being made through an underwriting group led by Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, who are acting as lead bookrunning managers; BofA Securities, Credit Suisse, Jefferies, UBS Investment Bank, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, Evercore ISI, HSBC and Mizuho Securities, who are acting as joint bookrunning managers; and Baird, William Blair and Drexel Hamilton, who are acting as co-managers, stated the release.

PPD officials said the firm expects to grant the underwriting group a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 9 million shares of its stock at the IPO price less the underwriting discounts and commissions.

A registration statement on Form S-1, including a prospectus, which is preliminary and subject to completion, relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective, according to the release.

PPD was founded in 1985 by Fred Eshelman as a one-person firm. It held its initial public stock offering in 1996. Today the company has offices in 46 countries and about 23,000 employees worldwide, with about 1,500 people in Wilmington.