The owner of the Rainforest Café and the Chart House restaurant has decided to scrap its plan to take itself private in a $1.3 billion deal. Landry’s Restaurants Inc. announced the decision yesterday.
King & Spalding partners Jack Capers in Atlanta and Dick Cirillo and Robert Finley in New York had been counsel to a special independent committee of Landry’s directors. Capers declined to comment on Tuesday.
Haynes and Boone was counsel to Landry’s executives. Olshan Grundman Frome Rosenzweig & Wolosky was advising Landry’s chief executive Tilman Fertitta.
Landry’s, of Houston, nixed the deal because the Securities and Exchange Commission had insisted that lenders involved in the transaction, including Jefferies & Co. and Wells Fargo, disclose confidential information, according to a regulatory filing. The lenders refused. Landry’s said that, instead of the going-private transaction, it will refinance $400 million of credit.
Landry’s operates one restaurant in Georgia, the Chart House in Savannah. Most of its properties are in Texas, Florida and California.