Restaurant chain Pinstripes to go public via $520 million SPAC deal

(Reuters) – Restaurant chain Pinstripes, which offers Italian food along with bowling and bocce, said on Friday it will go public through a merger with a blank-check firm in a deal valued at about $520 million and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange around the end of the fourth quarter.

The agreement with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Banyan Acquisition Corp includes an investment of more than $20 million from private equity firm Middleton Partners, which is expected to help Pinstripes expand.

The listing comes as investor appetite for SPACs, once Wall Street’s hottest trend when they peaked during 2020 and early 2021, has dwindled amid regulatory hurdles and poor share performance of popular firms.

Founded in 2007, Pinstripes plans to trade under the ticker symbols “PNST” and “PNST WS”. It currently operates in 13 locations in the United States.

The chain, which also has six venues under construction, expects annual revenue in 2024 of about $185 million and $195 million. It forecast adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, to be between $30 million and $33 million in the same period.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)