Centerbridge Partners To Complete $1B Purchase Of P.F. Chang's

Centerbridge Partners L.P., the New York-based private equity firm, said it planned to complete its $1.1 billion going-private purchase of P.F. Chang's China Bistro Inc. on Monday.

Centerbridge and its subsidiary, Wok Parent LLC, and Wok Acquisition Corp. had successfully completed a $51.50-per-share offer for outstanding shares of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based P.F. Chang's. About 17.8 million, or about 83.7 percent, of outstanding shares were tendered, Centerbridge said.

A spokesman for Centerbridge said that P.F. Chang's intent, revealed in February, to speed up the purchase of a majority position in the five-unit True Food Kitchen, created by Fox Restaurant Concepts of Scottsdale, had reverted back to the terms of the original 2009 $10 million credit facility. P.F. Chang's retains the option to convert that to a majority equity interest after True Food opens its sixth restaurant, the spokesman said.

"Centerbridge intends to promptly move forward with a 'short-form' merger under Delaware law after exercising its top-up option under the merger agreement, and P.F. Chang's will become an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Wok Parent," Centerbridge said in a statement. P.F. Chang's shares would cease trading on the Nasdaq exchange.

Centerbridge already owns the Rock Bottom Restaurants and Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group, which it bought in November 2010.

P.F. Chang's owns and operates 204 casual-dining P.F. Chang's Bistros and the 170-unit Pei Wei Asian Diner and Asian Market.

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
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