HOUSTON A special committee of the board of Landry’s Restaurants Inc. has retained Cowen and Co. as its independent financial adviser to consider the $1.3 billion proposal by chairman and chief executive Tilman J. Fertitta to take the company private.
Fertitta proposed a deal on Jan. 27 to acquire all outstanding common stock for $23.50 per share in cash, or about $380 million, representing a 40-percent premium over the stock’s Jan. 25 closing price. Including debt, the proposed deal is valued at $1.3 billion.
Fertitta already holds a 39-percent stake in Landry’s.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, the multiconcept operator of some 179 casual-dining restaurants and two Golden Nugget casino-hotels posted a net loss of $6.6 million, compared with a loss of $8.4 million in the same period the year before. Total revenues for the quarter increased 3.1 percent to $280.5 million. Same-store sales for the company’s restaurants fell 1 percent for the quarter, the company said.
In addition to its namesake seafood chain and the hotels, Landry’s owns the Chart House, Rainforest Cafe and Salt Grass Steak House chains, among other concepts. The company was founded by Fertitta, who was a partner in the first Landry's Seafood House, which opened in 1980.
Landry's stock fell 2.67 percent on Thursday to close at $15.30 a share. The company's stock has traded between $14.18 and $32.30 a share in the past 52 weeks.