The parent company of casual restaurant brand TGI Fridays, TGIF Holdings, has entered into an agreement to combine TGI Fridays with Allegro Merger Corp. The combination will result in TGI Fridays becoming a publicly listed company.
When the transaction closes in the first quarter of 2020,TGIF’s holders will receive a combination of cash and stock valued at $30 million and Allegro will assume about $350 million of net debt. The majority owners of TGIF, funds managed by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, expect to exchange a majority of their ownership in the TGIF business for shares of Allegro and significant holder MFP Partners, L.P., led by Michael F. Price, intends to exchange all of its ownership in the TGIF business for shares of Allegro.
TGIF’s existing holders may receive an additional 2 million shares of Allegro common stock contingent upon the business achieving specified post-closing performance metrics. Allegro is a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that currently trades under the ticker ALGR. Founded in 1965, Dallas-based Fridays has locations in over 55 countries, including 442 international franchised units and 396 domestic units.