Del Frisco’s Goes Public

by Mark Curriden, Senior Legal Affairs Writer

Del Frisco’s has served drinks and steaks to thousands of Texas lawyers over the years. Soon, those lawyers may be able to buy stock in the restaurant chain, too.

The Southlake-based Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct an initial public offering designed to raise $100 million.

According to the officially filing, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher corporate partners Jeff Chapman of Dallas and Peter Wardle of Los Angeles represent Del Frisco’s. Federal securities laws prohibit them from commenting on the matter.

Chapman recently represented grocery chain BI-LO in its $560 million acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Concentra in its $790 million sale to Humana.

Del Frisco’s, which operates 31 restaurants in 18 states, said in its SEC filing that it plans to use money raised by the IPO to repay debt. The company did not say how many shares it planned to offer or what price per share it hopes to score.