Burger King Agrees to Buyout

There have already been a number of restaurant stock takeovers in recent months. Notable among them: Mexican restaurant operator Rubio's was taken private by Mill Road Capital earlier this year for $8.70 per share. In July an affiliate of Apollo Management took CKE Restaurants private for $694 million. CKE owned Hardee's and Carl's Jr. fast-food chains.

"The right private owner might help one or more of these chains eventually become better, and likely smaller, competitors to [McDonald's]," UBS wrote in a note to investors. The note tapped Sonic(SONC), Wendy's, Jack in the Box(JACK) and Chili's operator Brinker International(EAT) as other potential restaurant stocks that may be targets for private-equity buyouts.

Burger King, a public company since 2006, has been in the hands of private equity before. In 2002, a group led by TPG Capital, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs(GS) Capital Partners bought Burger King for about $1.5 billion from Diageo(DEO). The firms still own nearly 32% of Burger King, and have significant representation on the board.

-- Written by Miriam Marcus Reimer in New York.

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