Friendly sells 160 units in sales-leaseback dealFriendly sells 160 units in sales-leaseback deal

WILBRAHAM Mass. Friendly Ice Cream Corp., parent of the Friendly’s family-restaurant chain, has sold and leased back its headquarters and 160 restaurants in a deal with Realty Income Corp., according to a local news report.

The aggregate price was not disclosed, but the campus-style headquarters here reportedly fetched $27.5 million. The Republican, a newspaper in Springfield, Mass., said 11 deals in western Massachusetts fetched more than $12 million for the restaurant company.

Friendly, which operates 316 restaurants and franchises another 196 stores, was acquired in August for $337.2 million by Sun Capital Partners, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based private-equity firm with extensive holdings in the restaurant industry. The majority of the stores involved in the sale-leaseback transactions were company-operated though a few are run by franchisees.

Neither Friendly nor Sun Capital returned calls for comment before the posting of this item.