Del Frisco’s Trades In Its Busted IPO Status

Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group, LLC (NASDAQ: DFRG) is regaining its IPO price today and is no longer trading as a busted IPO.  After hitting as low as $12.00 on Friday after a $13.00 initial public offering, Del Frisco’s is up 1.1% at $13.14 and it hit a high of $13.21 on Monday.  The company owns the Del Frisco’s named restaurants, but it also owns the Sullivan’s Steakhouse named restaurants.  In total, it operates 32 restaurants in 18 states.  In 2011 is posted 11.2% comparable restaurant growth and it posted 6.7% comparable restaurant sales growth in the first quarter of 2012.

Investors have been keen on buying restaurant chains which still have great growth opportunity ahead. It is also no secret that private equity firms like to take these private and Sullivan’s had been taken private previously as its parent group had been acquired by private equity.

This Del Frisco’s offering was 5.8 million shares at $13.00 per share on Friday, and we saw that some 3.2 million shares traded hands on Friday.  So far only 250,000 shares have traded on Monday but the bulk of those shares have been buyers looking for a deal on a great restaurant chain.

JON C. OGG