TGI Fridays reached a deal to sell nine of its 39 corporate-owned locations to raise cash to pay debt after its Nov. 2 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
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A bankruptcy judge in Dallas approved the sale of the locations, including five in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and four in Maryland, to Mera Global.
The Mexico-based operator of restaurants at airports and cruise terminals bid $34.5M for the stores, beating a $32.5M bid from former TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette, Restaurant Business reported.
Blanchette’s final bid was reportedly an increase from the $30.5M he initially offered.
The approval from Judge Stacey Jernigan on Thursday came the same day that The Wall Street Journal reported Blanchette’s investment firm had been selected to lead the restaurant chain’s rise out of bankruptcy.
Blanchette, who had served as CEO from 2018 through 2023, owns seven TGI Fridays locations through his Sugarloaf Hospitality investment firm, which is now expected to take over management of more than 400 of the restaurant’s global locations, according to the WSJ.
TGI Fridays, which is owned by private equity firm TriArtisan Capital Advisors, has seen its U.S. footprint shrink from more than 600 locations in 2008 to around 150 today, but it also expanded globally during that period through franchising and licensing deals.
The Dallas-based restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy with $37M in debt, and the nine-store sale will allow the company to repay its $24M bankruptcy loan in full, Reuters reported.
TGI Fridays also continues to consider bids for the chain's remaining 30 corporate-owned locations, according to Reuters.
The 59-year-old restaurant chain’s collapse began in earnest last year when a group of creditors with $375M in debt backed by TGI Fridays franchise royalties replaced the company as the manager of its own franchised restaurants with a consulting firm.
Its loss of day-to-day management at those locations followed a failed $220M merger attempt with U.K.-based Hostmore, TGI Fridays' largest global operator.
TGI Fridays is the most recent in a string of casual dining bankruptcies that began last year. BurgerFi, which owned 144 burger and pizza restaurants, went into bankruptcy in November, joining Italian chain Buca di Beppo, World of Beer and Tijuana Flats, among others.
Red Lobster was acquired by Fortress Investment Group-backed RL Investor Holdings in September following its own collapse, which some executives blamed on endless shrimp deals.
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