Australian fast food chain Guzman y Gomez will be publicly listed on the stock exchange next month in an effort to raise more than $200 million to rapidly expand across the country.
The Mexican-inspired food retailer announced its fully underwritten initial public offering today of 11.1 million shares at $22 apiece. That sees the company's valuation sitting at $2.2 billion.
Guzman y Gomez expects the move to raise about $242.5 million, $200 million of which will be put towards "the significant expansion of its corporate restaurant network in Australia".
Shares are expected to be listed on the Australian stock exchange for the first time on June 20 under the GYG ticker.
Company founder and co-CEO Steven Marks said the move would help the chain more than quadruple its number of restaurants up to more than 1000.
"We are just getting started," he said.
"As we commence the next chapter as an ASX-listed company, our vision to reinvent fast food and change the way the masses eat will remain central to what we do.
"We truly believe that fast food doesn't have to be bad food and we look forward to sharing our food with more guests across Australia and overseas as we look to realise the opportunity we have to grow our network to more than 1000 restaurants over the next 20-plus years."
Fellow co-CEO Hilton Brett said increasing the number of restaurants will improve Guzman y Gomez's business.
"We expect our sales growth to continue through the opening of new restaurants and increasing sales in existing restaurants," he said.
"We also expect our profitability to improve as we continue to improve our execution in restaurants and we further leverage the benefits of our increasing scale."
Guzman y Gomez currently operates 210 stores across Australia (where 185 are located), Singapore, Japan and the US, having opened its first restaurant in Sydney in 2006.
It recorded $759 million in sales last financial year, a number it expects to hit $1.14 billion in 2025.
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