Panera Bread has always said that between 1997 and 2017, it was the most effective restaurant stock on the market, delivering a return to shareholders that was 44 occasions higher than the S&P 500. However in 2017, Panera out of the blue went non-public by a $7.5 billion deal with JAB Holding Firm, the breakfast-obsessed funding arm of Germany’s reclusive billionaire Reimann household.
Now at present, JAB and the artisan-bakery chain says it’s coming again—going public for a second time, albeit by one other peculiar association.
The association includes Panera submitting for an IPO—but additionally, in no specific order, Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer’s SPAC investing in the chain, Meyer himself throwing in an undisclosed quantity of his personal private fortune, and JAB agreeing to speculate further cash if traders in Meyer’s already public SPAC bail and promote shares earlier than Panera deal closes. Panera continues to be inking the main points with the Securities and Change Fee, so it hasn’t stated but what the worth vary of shares will be, what number of shares it plans to supply, or when the IPO will happen.
For those who eat breakfast at a U.S. fast-food chain not named Starbucks or Dunkin’, odds are good it’s a model managed by JAB. Apart from Panera, the Luxembourg-based conglomerate has majority stakes in Caribou Espresso, Peet’s Espresso, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Bruegger’s Bagels, Pret A Manger, Stumptown, and Intelligentsia. Why it determined to place Panera again in the marketplace now’s unclear. However in July it relisted Krispy Kreme, which was delisted after JAB purchased it in 2016. JAB additionally used to personal Au Bon Ache, till it sold it this summer. A spokesperson is telling media the corporate plans to proceed being a long-term shareholder in Panera, whatever the IPO.
Essentially the most uncommon a part of the Panera deal, although, is on Meyer’s aspect. In keeping with an evidence the Union Sq. Hospitality Group CEO gave to the Wall Street Journal, his SPAC (USHG Acquisition Corp., buying and selling beneath “HUGS”) will make investments in Panera when it goes public. Meyer will additionally personally make investments, individually, at the moment. It’s uncommon as a result of for many SPAC offers, the blank-check firm itself is the entity that goes public—it raises cash from traders, lists itself on the stock alternate, then acquires a personal firm, taking it public afterwards by a form of funding transitive property. Right here, Meyer’s SPAC is investing capital upfront in Panera on the identical time that Panera pursues its personal IPO. As soon as the deal is full, Meyer says he’ll be a part of Panera’s board as lead impartial director.
“It’s an effective way to democratize the IPO course of,” he told CNBC’s Squawk on the Avenue earlier at present. “Our HUGS shareholders are going to have a possibility to alternate their shares, greenback for greenback, on the IPO worth when Panera has its IPO.”
