Press Association
Sunday 12th February 2012
Fast food chain Burger King is selling itself to private equity firm 3G Capital in a deal valued at 3.26 billion US dollars (£2.1bn).
The 24 dollars-per-share (£15.30) offer comes after a day of speculation about the deal sent shares up more than 15%.
It continued to make big gains before the stock market opened.
Burger King is the second-largest US hamburger chain behind its far-larger rival McDonald's. But with 12,100 locations, it has struggled because the economy has been bad for its most important group of customers - young men.
Under the terms of the deal with 3G, Burger King's chairman and CEO John Chidsey will become co-chairman of the board. 3G managing partner Alex Behring will be the other co-chairman.
Burger King became publicly traded in 2006, four years after a consortium of private equity firms acquired the company.
The group - TPG Capital, Bain Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs Funds - still own 31% of Burger King's outstanding shares and have agreed to tender their stock in the deal.
