Chicago Pizza, ASSI Complete Stock Deal
Chicago Pizza & Brewery Inc. said it has completed the sale of 1.25 million shares of stock to investor ASSI Inc. over the objections of a rebuffed suitor.
Mission Viejo-based Chicago Pizza, parent of BJ’s Pizza & Grill, said last month that it planned to sell the stock to Nevada-based ASSI, partly to secure funding for expansion.
In response, Buena Park-based La Pizza Loca Inc., which was thwarted in an earlier bid to buy Chicago Pizza, filed a lawsuit to try to block the deal with ASSI. The court declined to issue the temporary restraining order requested by La Pizza Loca owner Alex Meruelo to stop the transaction.
But Meruelo, who still wants to buy Chicago Pizza, said Monday that the legal battle is not over.
“It does not mean that at the end of the day, once we go to court, that it cannot be rescinded,” he said.
The agreement boosts ASSI’s stake in Chicago to 16.3%.
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