Hooters Sells To Investor Group

Hooters of America will answer to a new parent. In a transaction ending nearly three decades of family ownership, a group of private investors has bought the Atlanta-based restaurant chain from the estate of Robert Brooks. The transaction gives a consortium of private investors headed by Chanticleer Holdings ownership of nearly half of domestic Hooters restaurants and more than one-third of worldwide units.

The deal combines 120 restaurants from Hooters of America and 41 from Texas Wings—the largest Hooters franchisee—to create an operating company with 161 locations in 16 states. Charlotte, N.C.-based Chanticleer was previously a minority investor in the Hooters chain.