El Pollo Loco Files for Initial Public Offering

The filing shows that it will list under the ticker LOCO on the Nasdaq. El Pollo Loco is Spanish for “The Crazy Chicken” and it dates its first store back to Los Angeles in 1980.

The company now has 401 restaurants in its system. As of March 31, 2014, that was comprised of 168 company-operated stores and another 233 franchised restaurant locations. This is still very much of a regional play with no real nation presence. Locations to date are located solely in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

Its restaurants generated company-operated restaurant revenue of $294.3 million and $76.2 million and system-wide sales of $657.6 million and $172.0 million, for the year ended December 25, 2013 and the thirteen weeks ended March 26, 2014, respectively. The company said that it has achieved positive comparable restaurant sales growth in 11 consecutive quarters through our fiscal quarter ended March 26, 2014.

Underwriters on the company’s tombstone include Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Baird, William Blair and Stifel.

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