Carrols board gives final go-ahead for Fiesta spinoff

SYRACUSE  —  The board of directors of Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TAST) has green-lighted the spinoff of its Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. subsidiary, setting Carrols up to distribute Fiesta common stock to its shareholders next month.

Carrols, based in Syracuse, is a major Burger King restaurant franchisee that first publicized plans to split its Burger King business from its Fiesta subsidiary in February 2011. Fiesta owns and operates the restaurant chains Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana.

The Fiesta spinoff will take place through a tax-free dividend giving Carrols shareholders common stock in Fiesta — a stock distribution scheduled for May 7. Carrols shareholders will receive one share of Fiesta common stock for each share of Carrols common stock they hold at the close of business on April 26.

Fiesta common stock will be traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol FRGI, according to a Carrols news release. Fiesta stock is slated to start trading May 8.

Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. owned 297 Burger King restaurants as of April 1. The company said in March that it plans to purchase 278 additional Burger Kings from Burger King Corp. after it completes the Fiesta spinoff.

Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. had 243 company-owned and operated restaurants and 38 franchised restaurants as of April 1. Fiesta’s Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana restaurants are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Honduras, Trinidad, the Bahamas, Venezuela, and Costa Rica.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com