Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:TAST) has signed definitive agreements to purchase 64 Burger King restaurants from certain subsidiaries of Heartland Food LLC for a total cash purchase price of approximately $18.0 million excluding inventory. The restaurants to be acquired are located in or around the following markets: Nashville, TN (27 restaurants), Springfield, IL (11 restaurants), Terre Haute, IN (15 restaurants), Evansville, IN (7 restaurants), and other nearby markets (4 restaurants).
Daniel T. Accordino, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer said, “The consummation of this transaction will expand our footprint to a number of markets contiguous to our existing operations and is consistent with our stated strategy to enhance shareholder value through our expanding ownership within the Burger King system. Since our stock offering earlier this year we have completed the acquisition of 29 Burger King restaurants, and the expected closing of this transaction will bring our total 2014 acquisitions to almost 100 restaurants. We also continue to evaluate additional opportunities.”
The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions including satisfactory completion by the Company of due diligence and other customary closing conditions. In conjunction with the transaction, Burger King Corporation has also agreed to make a cash payment to Heartland at closing based on Carrols’ commitment to remodel 46 of the restaurants. Closing is expected to occur in late September or early October.
Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. is the largest Burger King franchisee in the world with 583 restaurants as of August 22, 2014 and has operated Burger King restaurants since 1976. For more information on Carrols, please visit the company’s website at www.carrols.com.
