Irvine-based El Pollo Loco Inc. is being sold three months after the Mexican fast-food chain’s owner put it on the block.
New York’s Trimaran Capital Partners LLC, which also owns the Charlie Brown’s restaurant chain, is buying El Pollo Loco for an estimated $400 million from American Securities Capital Partners LP of New York. The sale is set to close during the fourth quarter.
For the second quarter, El Pollo Loco had $61 million in sales, up 8% from a year earlier. The company posted a $2.3 million profit for the quarter, versus a $270,000 loss a year earlier.
Stephen Carley, El Pollo Loco’s chief executive, said in an earlier interview that the company’s profit has been squeezed by debt interest payments and the costs of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
The company isn’t publicly traded but reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission because of its publicly held debt.
El Pollo Loco had some $110 million in debt notes as of June 30.
The company has some 330 restaurants, including 139 that are owned by El Pollo Loco. The rest are franchised.
The restaurants are in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. El Pollo Loco plans to open a Chicago restaurant in mid-October.
Company-run and franchised locations are planned for Colorado, New England, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington, D.C., as well as more in California.
American Securities bought El Pollo Loco in 1999 from Advantica Restaurant Group for $128 million, including the assumption of $15 million in debt.
