Restaurant Firm May Seek Sale
Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., operator of the Sizzler steakhouse chain, said Wednesday that it had hired an advisor to weigh options including a sale or merger.
The struggling Sherman Oaks company retained investment banker Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to develop strategies that could include a complete or partial sale.
Worldwide operates or franchises 22 Pat & Oscar’s restaurants, 306 Sizzlers in the U.S. and Australia and 112 franchised KFC units, mostly in Australia.
“Management and the board believe that our stock price does not reflect the true value of our company and our prospects,” Chuck Boppell, Worldwide’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Worldwide shares closed up 13 cents at $3.65 on the New York Stock Exchange, a 52-week high.
Bob Sandelman, a Villa Park restaurant consultant, said Worldwide had recently shown some improvement. The Sizzler chain, for instance, has embarked on a remodeling program and upgraded 40 menu items.
“It’s a chain that has had its ups and downs,” he said. “Maybe they’re more of an attractive takeover candidate now than they were two or three years ago.”
Worldwide’s recent struggles have included lackluster or ill-timed promotions and continued fallout from an E. coli outbreak last year at several of its Pat & Oscar’s eateries that sickened about 47 people.
Sales at U.S. Sizzler restaurants open at least a year fell in the company’s second quarter ended Oct. 17. Worldwide blamed the drop partly on poor response to a $9.99 half-slab rib deal.
