Burger King To Go Public (Again), Bill Ackman To Be Large Shareholder

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Burger King To Go Public (Again), Bill Ackman To Be Large Shareholder

 

 

Burger King Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BKC) is taking their stocks public again. 3G Capital Inc is selling the company to Justice Holdings Ltd for $1.4 billion. According to Wall Street Journal, this deal is part of  an investment plan with Bill Ackman, the co-owner of Justice Holdings Ltd (LON:JUSH),  which will hold about 29% of the fast food chain. 3G will still own about 71 % of shares.  Burger King’s stocks will officially go public on the New York Stock exchange in a few months.

Ackman is also the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management LP, a hedge fund firm that acquired positions in many retail and restaurant companies including McDonald’s Corporation, J.C. Penney, Wendy’s International Inc, Borders Group, and General Growth Properties.

This news comes after Burger King’s latest attempts to makeover their brand and company. In the efforts to please the consumer and drive up competition against rival fast food franchises like McDonald’s and Subway, they’re planning on changing up the menu as well as the actual restaurants themselves.  The new menu, which was announced just two days ago, will feature healthier options like salads, smoothie beverages, and snack wraps.

Telsey Advisory Group analyst Peter Saleh says that Burger King’s changes are happening rather quickly. He told San Francisco Gate, “It seems a little quick. a lot of the restaurants are in need of remodeling. I don’t know if they necessarily had a clear strategy in terms of the customer they were targeting. Switching your strategy takes some time.”

Will this strategy work for Burger King or will it work against them? It appears that the fast food giant’s real concern is to prevent themselves from falling into financial trouble but perhaps they should take it one step at a time. Instead of changing the menus and remodeling, they could focus on the changing the menus first and see how that goes. Let’s just hope that Justice Holdings Ltd will help the chain move ahead.

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