The Habit Restaurants Inc. estimated on Tuesday preliminary double-digit same-store sales growth for its first quarter ended March 31.
The Irvine, Calif.-based parent to the Habit Burger Grill chain said it expects same-store sales to increase between 12.4 percent and 12.6 percent for the quarter, primarily due to increases in traffic and average check. Total revenue ranged between $54.3 million and $54.5 million, the company said.
The estimates were part of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a follow-on offering of 5 million shares of Class A common stock. Underwriters also have a 30-day option to purchase up to 750,000 additional shares.
The offering will open control of the company to shareholders. As a result, the company will no longer be considered a “controlled company,” as it was established after its initial public offering in November 2014, which raised $96.3 million, with a price of $18 per share.
Habit Restaurants’ stock was trading at around $31.42 per share at midday Wednesday.
Private-equity firm KarpReilly LLC owns about 35.9 percent of outstanding Class A stock and 64.4 percent of Class B common stock, the company said. With the completion of the follow-on offering, KarpReilly’s holdings will be reduced to about 18.2 percent of Class A common stock, or 16.5 percent if underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised, and 63.3 percent of Class B common stock. That will amount to less than 50 percent of voting power, although two partners of KarpReilly, Allan Karp and Chris Reilly, will remain on the company’s board.
With 110 units across four states at the end of 2014, Habit Burger Grill restaurants average about $1.8 million in sales, the company said in filings, an increase from $1.2 million in fiscal 2009.
The chain plans to open 26 to 28 company-owned restaurants in fiscal 2015, along with three to five franchised or licensed units, according to the filing.
Primarily located in California, Arizona and Utah, the first Habit Burger restaurant on the East Coast opened in New Jersey in August 2014. The company expects to double its unit count over the next four years, with the potential of eventually surpassing 2,000 units in the U.S.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 30, Habit Restaurants reported a same-store sales increase of 13.2 percent, driven by a 7.7-percent increase in traffic.
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