Today Fiesta Restaurant Group (FRGI) announced that it is issuing $100MM of common stock to buy back some of its most expensive debt. This is extremely intelligent because the stock is trading at extremely expensive multiples in relation to book, earnings and cash flow. FRGI owns two incredibly promising quick service restaurants, Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana. Pollo Tropical is one of the best run and potentially most profitable quick service restaurants that I have ever seen. I believe the growth potential is phenomenal, but the balance sheet of FRGI has hamstrung growth. This equity issuance will remove the debt issues and great improve the financial condition of the company. I believe that there will and should be one or two more equity issuances to fund growth throughout the United States. The numbers make too much sense to just open a dozen or so restaurants a year, as the cash on cash returns are phenomenal. Note that we’ve written research reports on FRGI several times and recommended to the company that they issue common stock. It is nice to see management taking the right steps to grow the company and if this continues, don’t be surprised if this is the next Chipotle (CMG).
http://investor.frgi.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=806397
http://investor.frgi.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=806398