VEREIT Announces Sale Of $204 Million Red Lobster® Pool To Golden Gate Capital And Enters Into A Strategic Partnership With Golden Gate Capital To Sell An Additional $400 Million Of Restaurant Real Estate
PHOENIX and SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- VEREIT, Inc. (NYSE: VER) ("VEREIT") and Golden Gate Capital ("GGC") today announced that they have partnered in transactions including more than $600 million of Red Lobster® restaurant properties owned by VEREIT. GGC acquired a $204 million pool of properties from VEREIT and, through a strategic partnership, GGC and VEREIT will opportunistically divest an additional $400 million of properties by executing single- or multi-unit dispositions at accretive valuations.
Glenn Rufrano, Chief Executive Officer of VEREIT, stated, "Our Red Lobster restaurant portfolio has been a successful investment. As part of our business plan, we are enhancing our broader portfolio by reducing our overall exposure to restaurant real estate and providing the proper risk-return relationship. We're very pleased with the outcome of this transaction and the opportunity to grow our strong partnership with Golden Gate Capital."
Josh Cohen, Managing Director of Golden Gate Capital, said, "The acquisition of these Red Lobster properties will generate attractive returns for our investors and reflects our continued confidence in the strength of the Red Lobster brand, its management team and the future growth prospects of the business. Red Lobster has made tremendous strides since the acquisition including refocusing on its core customers, developing new and exciting dishes for the whole family, and continuing its international expansion with 15 new restaurant openings. These changes are translating into clear results – Red Lobster's performance as an independent company has been outstanding, as demonstrated by its four consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales since our acquisition."
Kim Lopdrup, Chief Executive Officer of Red Lobster, added, "Since the close of the Golden Gate acquisition of Red Lobster and the original sale of the restaurant properties to VEREIT, this has been an outstanding partnership. We are very pleased to see Golden Gate's continued confidence in our business via these additional investments in the fundamental assets of our company. We look forward to working with Golden Gate, VEREIT and our 58,000 tremendous team members to continue to build Red Lobster into a world-class casual seafood company."
The Red Lobster restaurants that are part of this transaction will continue to operate without change or disruption, in the same manner that has delighted guests for decades.
About VEREIT
VEREIT is a leading, full-service real estate operating company with investment management capability. VEREIT owns and actively manages a diversified portfolio of retail, restaurant, office and industrial real estate assets with a total asset book value of $18.7 billion including 4,572 properties totaling approximately 100.9 million square feet. Additionally, VEREIT manages $6.6 billion of gross real estate investments on behalf of the Cole Capital® non-traded REITs. VEREIT is a publicly traded Maryland corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Additional information about VEREIT can be found on its website at www.VEREIT.com.
About Golden Gate Capital
Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with over $15 billion of capital under management. The principals of Golden Gate have a long and successful history of investing across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including going-privates, corporate divestitures, and recapitalizations, as well as debt and public equity investments. Golden Gate is one of the most active investors in multi-unit consumer companies with leading brands. Representative investments include Red Lobster, California Pizza Kitchen, ascena, Payless ShoeSource, Eddie Bauer, Express, Zales, J.Jill and Pacific Sunwear. For additional information, visit www.goldengatecap.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Information set forth herein (including information included or incorporated by reference herein) contains "forward-looking statements" (within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), which reflect VEREIT's expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Generally, the words "expects," "anticipates," "targets," "goals," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, and any statements regarding VEREIT's future financial condition, results of operations and business are also forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond VEREIT's control. If a change occurs, VEREIT's business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations may vary materially from those expressed in its forward-looking statements.
The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: VEREIT's plans, market and other expectations, objectives, intentions and other statements that are not historical facts; the developments disclosed herein; VEREIT's ability to execute on and realize success from its business plan; the ability for VEREIT and GGC to effectively divest certain properties at accretive valuations; VEREIT's ability to grow its partnership with GGC; VEREIT's ability to reduce its overall exposure to restaurants; and continuation or deterioration of current market conditions. Additional factors that may affect future results are contained in VEREIT's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. VEREIT disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, future events or other changes, except as required by law.
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SOURCE VEREIT, Inc.
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