Shares of a trimmed-down Wendy’s International soared more than 12 percent after it announced it is forming a special committee of directors to consider a possible sale of the company, among other options.
Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, which has pushed the company to make changes, received three seats on the board in March 2006.
Since then, Jack Schuessler abruptly retired as chairman and chief executive, and Kerrii Anderson stepped in as CEO to complete Wendy’s spin off of the Tim Hortons coffee-and-doughnut chain, sell its money-losing Baja Fresh Mexican Grill chain, and cut costs as it refocuses on its core burger business.
“A number of stakeholders have offered suggestions about strategies to improve performance and create additional value,” said board chairman James V. Pickett, who will lead the committee.
Shares of Wendy’s, the nation’s third-largest hamburger chain, gained $5.09 this morning, or 15.6 percent, to $37.77.
Junior Bridgeman, who owns 161 Wendy’s restaurants and is the company’s largest franchisee in the Louisville area, said it’s too early to tell what kind of impact a sale would have on the fast-food chain.
“Things are not terrible, it just takes time to turn any organization around,” he said in an interview. “When you have a system as large as Wendy’s, you just don’t do one thing and things change overnight.”
Bridgeman is a former basketball star at the University of Louisville and in the NBA. He said he has no plans to sell any of his Wendy’s restaurants.
Wendy’s has introduced a new line of deli sandwiches that it has credited with turning around sagging sales, and it plans to have a new breakfast menu in most of its North American restaurants by next year.
The announcement of a possible sale came after financial markets closed Wednesday, along with word from Wendy’s that its first-quarter earnings dropped 71 percent.