Smith & Wollensky To Be Bought by Patina Restaurant
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Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc., the New York-based steakhouse chain, agreed to be acquired by Patina Restaurant Group LLC for $79.5 million.
Patina, the owner of a namesake Los Angeles restaurant and the ice rink in New York’s Rockefeller Center, will pay $9.25 a share, Smith & Wollensky said yesterday in a statement. Landry’s Restaurant Inc. had bid $7.50 a share last month.
The chief executive officer of Smith & Wollensky, Alan Stillman, will buy and operate the company’s restaurants in New York. Before the Landry’s bid, Smith & Wollensky’s stock had fallen 41% following five consecutive years of losses since it first sold shares to the public in 2001.
“Stillman was looking for a white knight,” a New York-based restaurant consultant, Malcolm Knapp, said. “These are people that know each other over a long period of time. It’s guys who are used to running high-end restaurants.”
The chain, founded in 1977 when Mr. Stillman opened a steakhouse in New York, operates namesake restaurants in Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington. It also runs six restaurants in New York.
