Arby's owner Roark to buy Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.4 billion

[November 28, 2017]  (Reuters) - Arby's restaurant owner Roark Capital Group will buy Buffalo Wild Wings Inc for $2.4 billion, months after an activist investor won seats on the restaurant's board following a bitter proxy fight.

A pedestrian walks past a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in New York, U.S., February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The private equity firm will buy Buffalo Wild Wings for $157 per share, representing a premium of 7.2 percent to the chicken-wing restaurant's Monday's close.

The shares were up 6.4 percent at $155.80 in premarket trading on Tuesday.

The offer is a 34 percent premium to the stock price on Nov. 13, the last trading day before media reports said that Roark had made a takeover offer of more than $150 per share.

Including debt, the deal is valued at about $2.9 billion.

Following the closing of the deal, expected during the first quarter of 2018, Buffalo Wild Wings will become a privately held unit of Arby's and operate as an independent brand.

Activist hedge fund Marcato Capital Management, which had put pressure on the company to pursue strategies to boost its stock price, said it would vote for the deal. Marcato won three seats on the company's board in June.

Barclays served as financial adviser and White & Case LLP as legal adviser to Arby's. Goldman Sachs & Co LLC served as financial adviser and Faegre Baker Daniels LLP as legal counsel to Buffalo Wild Wings.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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