Franchising business and 18-concept parent company FAT Brands announced Tuesday that Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones, operating together as a joint entity, submitted a registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to become a standalone public reporting company.
This is the first step in the process toward FAT Brands taking Twin Peaks public, with an IPO likely to follow soon. The news of Twin Peaks likely filing for an IPO in 2024 was first reported on last October, with former CEO and current board chair Andy Wiederhorn saying at the time that the deal could take place as soon as Q2 or Q3 of 2024.
FAT Brands did not release any further information on the filing, including any valuation of a potential IPO or timing of next steps:
“Completion of the potential transaction remains subject to various conditions, including effectiveness of the registration statement and final approval of the board of directors of FAT Brands Inc.,” the company said in a statement.
The announcement of Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones filing for an IPO together has been overshadowed by the recent news regarding the recent fraud charges that the SEC has brandished against Andy Wiederhorn, regarding the misappropriation of $27 million of company funds, which the SEC alleges was used for the former FAT Brands CEO’s personal expenditures.
As Wiederhorn and multiple past FAT Brands associate grapple with the charges announced this week – in which the company has denied any wrongdoing — FAT Brands is also struggling with its challenging debt to income ratio. Wiederhorn has stipulated in multiple earnings calls that funding from a Twin Peaks IPO would be used to tamp down the company’s debt to income ratio.
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