McCormick
& Schmick's Rejects Fertitta Offer
By FBWorld Team
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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