Catterton, Oak May Raise $100M in Cafe IPO

Casual dining chain Cheddar’s Casual Cafe has filed confidentially for an initial public offering and has selected Morgan Stanley and Piper Jaffray to lead its IPO, three sources familiar with the situation told sister news service Reuters.

Texas-based Cheddar’s, owned by private equity firms Catterton Partners and Oak Investment Partners, could see an IPO come late in the second quarter, according to one of the sources. It would raise around $100 million for the company, a second source said. A Cheddar’s IPO comes amid a flurry of offerings from other private equity-backed restaurant chains.

Apollo Global Management-owned CKE Restaurants filed for a $100 million IPO. Bloomin’ Brands—the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, which is backed by Bain Capital and Catterton Partners—also filed for a $345 million IPO in April. Other restaurants in the IPO pipeline include Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group LLC and Tex-Mex chain Chuy’s Holdings Inc.

Cheddar’s, Catterton Partners and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Oak Investment Partners and Piper Jaffray could not be reached for comment.

The confidential filing is a new provision under the JOBS Act, which allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to file their registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission out of the public eye.

(Olivia Oran is a journalist correspondent for Reuters in New York; Luisa Beltran is a senior writer for peHub.)