Restaurant giant Darden buys Ruth’s Chris Steak House in $715M deal

Orlando, Florida-based Darden Restaurants Inc. — the nation’s largest restaurant company — plans to make its portfolio even bigger with the purchase of the parent company of Ruth’s Chris Steak House, one of the largest fine-dining steakhouse restaurant companies in the U.S.

Darden, owner of brands such as Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, joined with Orlando-based Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc. today to announce that the two entered a “definitive merger agreement.” Darden will make a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Ruth’s Hospitality for $21.50 per share in an all-cash transaction with an equity value of about $715 million.

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Ruth’s Chris has two locations in Charlotte — in uptown and SouthPark.

Darden, a more than $9 billion company, yesterday filed a document with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission offering a few specifics. Notably, its wholly-owned subsidiary Ruby Acquisition Corp. will merge with Ruth’s Hospitality Group.

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