Latest news with #Biglari
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Biglari: Q1 Earnings Snapshot
SAN ANTONIO — SAN ANTONIO — Biglari Holdings Inc. (BH) on Friday reported a first-quarter loss of $33.3 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. The San Antonio-based company said it had a loss of $126.40 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $23.37 per share.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
El Pollo Loco Faces Unsolicited Takeover
Sardar Biglari wants all the chicken. Nation's Restaurant News reports that the Texas mogul made an unsolicited offer to acquire Costa Mesa-based El Pollo Loco through his hedge fund Biglari Capital. The activist investor, who already owns 15% of the chicken chain, previously acquired all or part of Jack in the Box, Cracker Barrel, Friendly's, and Western Sizzlin. Biglari also has money in insurance and oil companies and Maxim magazine, as well as stakes in Ferrari and Coca-Cola. The Roanoke Times described the Iranian-born Biglari as a 'corporate raider' when he acquired the Steak 'n Shake restaurant chain. El Pollo Loco was first introduced to the United States with a small store in L.A.'s MacArthur Park by Juan Francisco Ochoa. The high-school dropout from Sinaloa went to work at 14 selling shoes before recruiting family members to help open a small roasted chicken restaurant in Guasave, Mexico that's still going strong today. Workers at El Pollo Loco dressed ranchero style with overalls, cowboy shirts and cowboy hats while citrus-marinating and grilling the chicken over an open was at the original store in Sinaloa recently doling out hugs, autographs and chicken to admirers when a plaque was unveiled honoring his history, honoring a 'culinary legacy that transcended borders.' When Ochoa sold El Pollo Loco to Denny's in 1983, he kept the Mexican operations for himself. Ochoa went on to create Taco Palenque and Palenque Grill restaurants.'I never dreamed it would get this big,' Ochoa told the Los Angeles Times soon after opening his first L.A. location. 'If I had it to do all over again, I would build a bigger restaurant.' That small store on Alvarado is still bustling, as are the other earliest locales in Carson, Santa Ana and South Gate. Taco Bell and Del Taco were founded in Southern California in the 1960s and vastly expanded the market for low-priced Mexican food. Rubio's, Baja Fresh and La Salsa followed, showing off L.A.'s unending appetite for south of the border fare. After Denny's sold El Pollo Loco to focus on their Coco's and Carrows restaurants, the company cycled through a series of private equity and investment firms before an initial public offering in 2014. Today, El Pollo Loco has nearly 500 locations in the Southwest and is celebrating their 50th anniversary with $19.75 family meal deals. Executives told NRN that they are 'in the process of carefully evaluating the proposal' from Biglari, though the paper also notes the 'poison pill' provision that Biglari might use to acquire the 85% of the chain he does not yet own. Forbes once called Biglari a 'Warren Buffett-wannabee' who 'tend(s) toward the dramatic,' so it's anybody's guess how this will play out.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Is El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Stock Rocketing Higher Today
Shares of fast food chain El Pollo Loco (NASDAQ:LOCO) jumped 15.3% in the morning session after Biglari Capital offered to acquire the company. Reports revealed LOCO was evaluating the proposal, indicating that a deal was likely to be done. Importantly, Biglari already held approximately 15% of LOCO's shares, making it a significant stakeholder with vested interest in the company's direction. The shares closed the day at $10.16, up 9.5% from previous close. Is now the time to buy El Pollo Loco? Access our full analysis report here, it's free. El Pollo Loco's shares are not very volatile and have only had 9 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for El Pollo Loco and indicate this news significantly impacted the market's perception of the business. The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 11 months ago when the stock gained 35.3% on the news that the company reported strong first quarter 2024 results that beat analysts' same store sales, revenue, gross margin, and EPS expectations. Same store sales benefited from an increase in average check size due to increases in menu prices and an approximately 1.2% increase in transactions. The company planned to open two new company-owned restaurants and five to seven new franchised restaurants, likely pointing to healthy demand for its offerings. Zooming out, we think this was a fantastic quarter that should have shareholders cheering. El Pollo Loco is down 8.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $10.43 per share, it is trading 24.7% below its 52-week high of $13.86 from August 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of El Pollo Loco's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,134. Unless you've been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. We prefer a lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stock benefiting from the rise of AI. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story. Sign in to access your portfolio
