Los Angeles, Sept 15 - Shareholders on Monday approved Wendy's International Inc $2 billion buyout by Triarc Cos Inc, the Arby's sandwich chain owner controlled by billionaire investor Nelson Peltz.
The deal, which combines Triarc with the No. 3 U.S. hamburger restaurant, is expected to close at the end of September and the merged entity will be called Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc, the companies said.
Prior to making its bid for Wendy's, Peltz had pushed the struggling hamburger chain to cut costs and improve profits as rivals McDonald's Corp, Burger King Holdings Inc and CKE Restaurants Inc's Carl's Jr nibbled away market share.
Under terms of the deal, Wendy's shareholders will receive 4.25 Class A Triarc shares for each Wendy's share they own. Triarc shares closed at $5.38 on Friday, which would assign a value of about $22.87 to Wendy's shares.
A Wendy's spokesman said the company has 84 million shares outstanding, which would value the deal at $1.92 billion.
Wendy's stock was down 21 cents to $22.63 in afternoon trade and Triarc shares fell 2 cents to $5.36.
"It's a merger of two very mature chains. I just don't see any momentum" on the part of Wendy's or Arby's, said Bob Goldin, executive vice president at restaurant consulting firm Technomic.
Goldin said Technomic has done work for Wendy's but not Triarc.
But Morgan Stanley analyst John Glass in a recent client note that meetings with Wendy's new management boosted his conviction it would be the next big fast-food company turnaround.
Still, Glass said, "It is unlikely that the impact from contemplated changes will be felt until very late '08 at best and may require two years to execute."