MSD Capital Acquires 9.2% Stake in IHOP

A New York-based firm that handles the investments of Dell Computer Corp. founder Michael S. Dell has acquired a 9.2% ownership stake in Glendale-based restaurant operator IHOP Corp., according to a report filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm, MSD Capital, has acquired 1.92 million shares of the thinly traded stock. In late January, MSD crossed the SEC’s 5%-ownership threshold that triggers the reporting requirement.

MSD becomes IHOP’s third-largest institutional shareholder, behind Memphis, Tenn.-based Southeastern Asset Management and Fidelity Management & Research Co., a unit of Boston-based FMR Corp.

Shares of IHOP, which has undergone significant management and strategic changes the last several months, closed down 1 cent at $21.28 on the New York Stock Exchange.

A spokesman for MSD declined to comment on how IHOP, a 1,100-unit family-dining restaurant chain, fits in with its other investments.

-- Karen Robinson-Jacobs