News

Pizza Pizza moving toward IPO

May 9, 2005

Toronto Globe and Mail: Pizza Pizza Ltd. is expected to announce plans for a CAN $150-million (U.S. $ 121.1 million) initial public offering later this week.

If the country's second-largest pizza chain does go public, as expected, it will join seven other restaurant-centered trusts, including Boston Pizza.

Pizza Pizza wants to raise money in part to fund expansion into the fried chicken business. It is launching a Chicken Chicken chain this year, with plans to build 10 outlets in 2005 that will compete with the KFC chain owned by Priszm Canadian Income Fund.

An IPO would also allow Pizza Pizza's founders, including president Michael Overs, to cash in on the success of the chain they have built since opening in downtown Toronto in 1967. The chain now has more than 300 outlets and 3,500 employees.

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