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Board Votes to Protect Stockholders
McCormick & Schmick’s on Wednesday officially rejected the unsolicited tender offer from Tilman Fertitta.
The Houston restaurant tycoon, who owns Landry’s Seafood Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: LNY), offered to buy the Portland-based restaurant chain for about $137.2 million on April 7.
In a statement, McCormick & Schmick’s (NASDAQ: MSSR) said its board of directors had unanimously rejected Fertitta’s offer, made through his company LSRI Holdings, saying the $9.25 per share offer undervalues the company. The company’s stock closed Wednesday at $9.29, unchanged from the previous day’s close.
“The Board believes that the LSRI Holdings offer undervalues the Company, is highly conditional, opportunistically timed and seeks to advance the financial and competitive interests of LSRI Holdings at the expense of all other McCormick & Schmick’s stockholders,” said Board Chairman Douglas Schmick.
CEO Bill Freeman added: “The Board and management remain confident that McCormick & Schmick’s is well-positioned to benefit from the recovery of the upscale casual dining industry and that continued execution of the Company’s strategic revitalization plan, announced in March 2011, will improve revenue per location, provide strong returns on invested capital and deliver significant value to all stockholders.”
Fertitta previously told the Business Journal that McCormick & Schmick’s must go private in order to flourish. “They’re not going to be successful as a public company,” he said.
McCormick & Schmick’s has three locations in Seattle and one in Bellevue.
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