Contact: Mark Fefer, Marketing Communications, 206.757.8583 or markfefer@dwt.com
APRIL 21, 2015 – Davis Wright Tremaine is pleased to congratulate our longtime client, Flynn Restaurant Group, and its CEO, Greg Flynn, who have been recognized by "Franchise Times" for having executed the "Deal of the Year."
Mr. Flynn is being honored today at a luncheon at the "Franchise Times" Finance & Growth Conference in Las Vegas.
According to the magazine, the award recognizes Flynn Restaurant Group for its recent $1.1 billion equity and debt recapitalization, which included a direct investment from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund. Davis Wright Tremaine was pleased to serve as counsel to the company on the transaction.
"[Mr. Flynn’s] new source of capital, a pension fund, bypasses the private equity groups, hedge funds and the like that usually do the investing for the institutions,” reported the magazine in its April 2015 cover story.
"Pension fund managers can be as patient as appropriate for the business without regard to the capital source," Mr. Flynn told the magazine.
Flynn Restaurant Group, which has been a Davis Wright Tremaine client for well over a decade, "was among the first franchisees to use private equity funds as a source of capital,” reported the magazine. This strategy “helped start a wave of investment that led to the creation of super-sized franchisees."
Flynn Restaurant Group now operates more than 470 Applebee’s and 186 Taco Bells, and generates $1.5 billion in annual sales.
The Davis Wright Tremaine team on the deal included Sarah Tune, Elisabeth Woare, Ame Lewis, Laura Warf, and Brian Hulse.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with nine offices and approximately 500 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.