Restaurant Brands is a hold

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $42.73 (Toronto symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (212-333-3810; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 483.3 million; Market cap: $20.7 billion; Dividend yield: n/a) is the new company formed by the merger of Tim Hortons (old symbol THI) and Burger King Worldwide (old symbol BKW). Restaurant Brands is the world’s thirdlargest fast-food chain, after McDonald’s and Yum Brands, with 14,000 Burger King restaurants and 4,590 Tim Hortons outlets in 100 countries. In all, these locations have annual sales of over $23 billion. Roughly 72% of Tim Hortons shareholders opted to receive 3.0879 shares of the new company for each Tim Hortons share they held. A further 26% chose the default option of $65.50 (Canadian) in cash plus 0.8025 of a Restaurant Brands share, while 2% picked the all-cash option of $88.50 (Canadian) a share. Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital Management owns 51% of Restaurant Brands. Former Burger King investors hold 27%, while former Tim Hortons shareholders own the remaining 22%. …