Seenu G. Kasturi's Blue Victory Holdings has acquired controlling interest in American Restaurant Concepts of Jacksonville, Fla., the operator and franchisor of Dick's Wings restaurants.
Lafayette businessman Seenu G. Kasturi has been quietly building Blue Victory Holdings over the past three years, mainly focusing on the acquisition of restaurants and multi-family properties. Kasturi announced Aug. 15 that he had acquired controlling interest in American Restaurant Concepts Inc., the Jacksonville, Fla.-based operator and franchisor of Dick's Wings restaurants. Dick's has 16 full-service restaurants and two express locations. Fifteen of the restaurants are in Florida, one in Georgia and two in Canada.
Kasturi paid almost $500,000 for 15.5 million shares of American Restaurant's stock, or 3.2 cents per share, and assumed $66,000 in operating expenses for the company. The deal gives Kasturi 45.3 percent of American's stock. The company trades over the counter.
Seenu Kasturi
Kasturi is the president, chief executive officer and chairman of Lafayette-based Blue Victory Holdings, which owns and manages 16 Kentucky Fried Chicken stores, four Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell restaurants, one Kentucky Fried Chicken/Long John Silver's restaurant and one Hardee's location. Additional holdings include Victory Village Apartments, Iberia Village Apartments, Village Park Apartments, Village Cove Apartments and Global Offshore Resources, a company that provides pre-screened personnel to onshore and offshore energy-related companies. Blue Victory's primary specialty is the redevelopment of distressed properties.
Established in 2009, the local company has grown from $1.5 million in revenues in 2010 to $12.2 million last year and expects its 2012 revenue to top $25 million.
American Restaurant Concepts, which reported its fiscal 2011 results on July 27, lost $1.65 million for the year ending Dec. 25 and has defaulted on $290,000 in loans, according to its annual report. The report noted that American's current cash resources would not allow the company to continue operating for another year.
The 15.5 million shares being purchased by Kasturi represent approximately 45.3 percent of the company's outstanding common stock. The purchase price of 3.2 cents per share being paid by Kasturi values American Restaurant Concepts at approximately $1.1 million. The company's common stock closed at 2 cents per share on Aug. 14.
Kasturi has already paid 40 percent of the purchase price to Michael Rosenberger, American Restaurant's CEO, according to an announcement on the deal.
Rosenberger retained beneficial ownership of 4,573,000 shares, or 13.3 percent, of the company's common stock.
Read more about Kasturi's plans in the next issue of ABiz, which publishes Aug. 30.