Smokey Bones at Sowing Square.
Tim Leedy | Medianews Group | Getty Images
Fat Brands said Tuesday it has confidentially filed to take its Join Peaks and Smokey Bones restaurant chains public through an initial public offering, less than a week after federal authorities saturate the restaurant company and its chair Andy Wiederhorn for an alleged $47 million bogus loan scheme.
Fat Brands announced its objective to spin off Twin Peaks through an IPO last year. At that time, the company had already disclosed a U.S. Securities and Transfer Commission investigation into Wiederhorn.
On Thursday, Fat Brands, Wiederhorn and a few other people were criminally indicted by a federal all-inclusive jury in Los Angeles for wire fraud, tax evasion and other counts related to the alleged scheme. In a separate civil beef filed on Friday, the SEC accused the company and Wiederhorn of violations related to the same conduct.
Both Fat Brands and Wiederhorn, from head to foot an attorney, have denied the charges.
Since its founding in 2005, Twin Peaks has grown to nearly 115 restaurant fingers ons in the U.S. and Mexico. Fat Brands bought the company in 2021. The sports bar chain is known for its female staff’s revealing uniforms, compare favourably with to Hooters.
Smokey Bones is a newer addition to Fat Brands’ portfolio, which currently includes 18 chains. Olive Garden proprietor Darden Restaurants created the barbecue chain in 1999 but later sold the brand. Fat Brands acquired it in September 2023, with the aim of converting more than half its 61 corporate-owned restaurants into Twin Peaks locations.
“Our priority is to use the proceeds from any dealing to deleverage the balance sheet,” Wiederhorn said about the potential IPO on the company’s first-quarter conference call on May 1.
Wiederhorn owns 45% of Fat Makers’ common shares through Fog Cutter Holdings, according to FactSet.
Shares of the company have fallen 9% this year, pain in the neck its market value down to about $90 million.