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Landry's CEO cuts offer for company to $21/shr
(Reuters) - Landry's Restaurants Inc (LNY.N) Chief Executive Tilman Fertitta cut his offer to buy out the company by more than 10 percent to $21 a share, citing worsening credit market conditions that have made it difficult to finance a possible deal valued at about $1.3 billion.
Shares of the restaurant-chain operator rose as much as 27 percent to $19.57, but fell back in afternoon trade to $17.70, well below Fertitta's offer price, indicating the proposed deal may not come to fruition.
The revised offer price is about 37 percent higher than the stock's Thursday closing price of $15.30 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Fertitta, who currently owns about 39 percent in Landry's Restaurants, said he has a letter from Jefferies & Co indicating that it was "highly confident" in its ability to get the debt financing for the deal.
The total deal value of about $1.3 billion includes CEO Fertitta's stake in the company as well as additional substantial cash equity.
In a letter to the company's board, Fertitta said since January, when he made his initial offer, credit market conditions have significantly worsened, making it far more costly to obtain the debt financing required for the deal.
(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish Narayanan)
