NEW YORK — The chairman and chief executive of Landry’s Restaurants finally got what he was after Tuesday as the company’s board approved his $1.2 billion all-cash offer to buy the company.
Tilman Fertitta, also Landry’s president, controls more than half of the company’s shares, but coming up with the right formula to get the rest took awhile.
Fertitta will pay $14.75 per share in cash for Landry’s — a 37 percent premium over Monday’s closing price of $10.76. He owned about 55.1 percent of Landry’s outstanding shares as of Monday.
The news sent shares of Landry’s, which owns the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, the Rainforest Cafe chain and other restaurants, surging $2.93, or 27.2 percent, to close at $13.69. The stock hit a 52-week high of $13.99 earlier Tuesday.
In an August bid, Fertitta would have given other Landry’s stockholders shares of Landry’s Saltgrass Inc. The company rejected that proposal as inadequate. Fertitta had shelved a similar privatization bid he made in 2008, offering $13.50 per share.
Landry’s, the nation’s second-largest operator of seafood restaurants behind Red Lobster owner Darden Restaurants, also owns Charley’s Crab, Landry’s Seafood House and the Chart House.
Its nonseafood restaurants include Vic & Anthony’s and the Pizza Oven.
The company, based in Houston, has a gambling subsidiary that owns Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev., and it owns hotels across the U.S.
Still open to proposals after rejecting the August bid, Landry’s formed a special committee of directors to review its strategic options, including a potential sale. The special committee unanimously recommended Fertitta’s all-cash bid.
“While the saga of Mr. Fertitta trying to purchase the company has gone on for almost two years, we believe this time it may succeed,” CL King analyst Michael Gallo told investors in a research note Tuesday.
