SAN ANTONIO Activist investor and Western Sizzlin Corp. chairman Sardar Biglari has increased to 8.6 percent his funds’ holdings in Steak n Shake Co. ahead of the family-dining operator’s February annual meeting, where Biglari and an associate have said they would seek board seats.
Biglari has been pressing for change at the struggling Steak n Shake since this summer when he first disclosed he would nominate himself and a colleague to Steak n Shake’s corporate board. All Steak n Shake board seats will be placed before a shareholder vote at the company’s February meeting.
Indianapolis-based Steak n Shake operates or franchises about 490 units in 20 states. For the company’s latest fiscal year ended in September, net income dropped to $11.8 million from $28.0 million a year earlier. Annual revenues rose 2.4 percent to $654.1 million and full-year same-store sales at corporate locations dropped 3.8 percent.
In a Friday filing with securities regulators, Biglari disclosed that through his hedge fund, Lion Fund LP, based here, and through Western Sizzlin and other investment funds, he controls 2.45 million shares or options underlying shares in Steak n Shake. The additional shares were acquired between Nov. 19 and Nov. 23 for per-share prices of between $10.46 and $14.30, the filing stated. During the past year, Steak n Shake shares have traded between $10.15 per share and $18.10 per share.
Before this latest filing, Biglari’s funds held a 7.3-percent position in the restaurant company. He first announced his intention for a directorship at Steak n Shake in August, and in October he sent a letter to all Steak n Shake shareholders encouraging them to vote for change at the company. In the letter, Biglari criticized what he called Steak n Shake’s “failed vision, failed strategy, failed execution, and failed board.”
Biglari has been an active investor at Western Sizzlin, Friendly Ice Cream Corp. and Applebee’s International Inc. As he had done prior to Sun Capital’s buyout of Friendly, Biglari introduced a website to promote his position at Steak n Shake, and has purchased billboards in the Indianapolis area to encourage Steak n Shake shareholders to vote for his placement on the company’s board.