WINSTON-SALEM N.C. A 23-year-old North Carolina man who reportedly has multiple aliases and legal troubles is said to be behind the $7.25-per-share buyout offer made Sunday to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
The Winston-Salem Journal reported on Monday that Krispy Kreme had received an unsolicited $500 million buyout offer from MGL Asset Management Group LLC, a private-equity firm led by asset manager Dee Guess.
In a follow-up story on Tuesday, the Journal said Guess' full name is Jerry Demario Guess. The paper also cited two lawsuits filed against him and one of his companies, Ligna Acquisition Group LLC, that indicated he has also gone by the names Mario Guess, J.D. Guess and Jerry D. Guess. In those suits, Guess faces such charges as breach of contract, fraud and unfair and deceptive trade practices, according to the Journal.
MGL's $7.25-per-share offer to buy Krispy Kreme was a 38-percent premium on the doughnut company’s closing price of $5.27 last Friday. In trading on Tuesday, Krispy Kreme's stock rose more than 4 percent to close at $5.21.
Calls to Krispy Kreme, which operates or franchises about 400 locations, were not returned by the time of this posting. The company also has not filed any statements with federal regulators.
MGL said in an unsigned e-mail to Nation's Restaurant News that "the offer is legitimate and we’re currently putting our consortium together to take things to the next level."
Krispy Kreme’s market capitalization is about $345 million. Its enterprise value, via Yahoo! Finance, is about $375 million. The company’s largest shareholder is a firm based in Kuwait that owns about 14 percent of Krispy Kreme stock.
The unconfirmed offer would come on the heels of Krispy Kreme’s first profitable quarter in two years. Still, the company is continuing to close underperforming domestic stores and report negative same-store sales, and its only growth has come from international development. Certain investigations surrounding past accounting practices and allegations of corporate misconduct are still open. Others, including a shareholder lawsuit, had been settled.
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