Washington state may be getting another publicly-traded company. And this is a big one. Univar, the Redmond-based chemical distributor, filed to raise up to $862 million through an initial public offering.

Founded in 1924 by George Van Waters and Nat Rogers, the company generated $7.2 billion in sales last year after distributing 5.4 million metric tons of chemicals. It employs 6,842 people. And while Univar is not a technology firm per se, the company notes in the filing that its IT assets offer a strategic advantage over competitors.

The company writes in the filing:

"In North America, we currently operate a cost-effective, stable and mature IT systems environment across our North American distribution network. This enables us to, among other things, manage our relationships with our suppliers and customers with a focused and timely exchange of information (for example, custom sales reports for customers and market analyses for suppliers). In addition, our (business information services) infrastructure includes an e-commerce platform which enables us to electronically handle basic transactions with customers such as electronic data interchange and in some cases active document collaboration and electronic invoicing."

Univar has been a publicly-traded before, trading on the New York Stock Exchange until its purchase in 1996 by a Dutch firm. It spun off from that firm in 2002.

Univar has lost money for each of the past three years, posting a $10 million net loss last year. It plans to use funds from the stock sale to repay debt.

As we've reported in the past, the IPO pipeline has been pretty dry in Washington state. Bellevue-based mobile software company Motricity priced its offering earlier this month, but shares have slumped since its public debut. (They are now trading at $8.85, well below the reduced $10 offering price).