Rubio's Restaurants Inc. said it received an unsolicited offer from an investor group to buy the company for about $80 million.
The company said the group offered $8 per share, a premium of 33 percent over the stock's Wednesday close.
Shares of the Mexican restaurant chain, which operates about 190 restaurants mostly in southern California, jumped 29 percent to $7.75 in trading after the bell. They closed at $6 Wednesday on Nasdaq.
The board intends to consider the offer, Rubio's executives told Reuter's in a statement.
The man who led the buyout offer, Alex Meruelo, has been a major Rubio's stockholder for 10 years and believes Rubio's would be more profitable were it not a public company, said Joe Marchica, executive vice president for acquisition and investments for the Downey-based Meruelo Group, in a San Diego Union-Tribune article.
From the Union-Tribune:
Los Angeles-area entrepreneur Alex Meruelo has long been a major Rubio's stockholder and it made sense for him to make an offer for a company that operates in the same industry and geographic location as some of his food service enterprises, said Joe Marchica, executive vice president for acquisition and investments for the Downey-based Meruelo Group, which invests in real estate and food industry businesses."Really, there's not much more to it than saying Rubio's is an excellent brand with good quality food, and a significant amount of their stores are located in Southern California, which would make for an easier transition for us," Marchica said.
