Hooters Sold 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, who died in 2006. The transaction announced Jan. 24 gives a consortium of private investors headed by Chanticleer Holdings ownership of nearly half of all domestic Hooters restaurants and more than one-third of those worldwide.

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.

The sales price was not disclosed. Charlotte, N.C.-based Chanticleer previously was a minority investor in the Hooters chain.