(Reuters) -Restaurant Brands will take full control of Carrols Restaurant Group in a deal that values the largest Burger King franchise in the U.S at about $1 billion, the company said on Tuesday.
The Burger King parent currently owns about 15% of Carrols, which operates more than 1,000 restaurants and 60 Popeyes outlets.
The burger chain has been moving away from larger franchisees and toward local franchisees as part of a turnaround strategy.
“We are going to rapidly remodel these restaurants over the next five years or so and put them back into the hands of motivated, local franchisees,” Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, said in a statement.
The company said it would invest about $500 million to fund the remodeling of about 600 of Carrols acquired restaurants.
Restaurant Brands will pay $9.55 per share in cash for the Carrols Restaurant shares it does not already own, which is a 13.4% premium to the stock’s closing price on Jan. 12.
Carrols’ shares jumped 12% premarket. The company has a market capitalization of $458.9 million, as of last close.
Restaurant Brands said the transaction is likely to close in the second quarter and expects it to be about flat to its adjusted earnings per share.
(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum and Deborah Sophia; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Savio D’Souza and Sriraj Kalluvila)
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