New York, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 24, 2014 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced that it has initiated coverage on Chanticleer Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOTR), a company that owns and operates Hooters branded restaurants in emerging international markets.
"We view Chanticleer Holdings, Inc. ("Chanticleer", NASDAQ: HOTR) as an intriguing speculative growth story in the casual dining industry. Led by the iconic Hooters brand, Chanticleer owns and operates multiple restaurant brands domestically and internationally including Hooters, American Roadside Burger (ARB), Just Fresh, Spoon Bar & Kitchen, and The Burger Company. With an initial focus on operating Hooters restaurants internationally and domestically in the Northwest, Chanticleer's team of experienced managers and operators have laid out a compelling growth strategy focused on bringing the taste of America abroad. If Chanticleer continues to have access to new funding for its expansion strategy, we expect that its brand portfolio can support high sales growth for the next several years," stated Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity. "We are initiating coverage with a target price of $4.00."
Additional investment highlights are as follows:
Large opportunity taking American tastes abroad
With a highly experienced management team and operating partners, Chanticleer specializes in taking American restaurant concepts abroad. The company's foray into taking America abroad is with the iconic Hooters restaurant brand. Chanticleer owns all or part of the Hooters franchise rights to develop and operate Hooters restaurants in South Africa, Eastern Europe, five states in Brazil, parts of the United Kingdom, and Australia. The company also has franchise rights in Oregon and Washington in the United States. Chanticleer has outlined a large opportunity for its Hooters properties that could support over 80 Hooters restaurants in its area, providing a long runway for growth.
Strong restaurant portfolio leverages consumer preferences
Anchored by its Hooters properties, Chanticleer has developed what appears to be a strong restaurant portfolio leveraged to benefit from consumer preferences in the United States and abroad. Currently the company has 26 restaurants consisting of Hooters, the newly re-branded American Burger Company, Spoon Bar & Kitchen, and Just Fresh. While many view Chanticleer's expanded restaurant portfolio as prudent diversification, we see significant growth opportunities. We are particularly intrigued by the company's foray into the "better burger" space with American Burger Company, as this represents the fastest-growing component of the $72Bn burger industry. With six burger restaurants and counting, Chanticleer is firmly stepping into the fast casual space with a concept and brand well packaged for exporting internationally when the time is right. We are also encouraged by the company's plans to form a fast casual healthy seafood concept from Spoon Bar & Grill, a critically acclaimed restaurant in Dallas, TX.
Starting to show benefits of improved scale
We are encouraged by recent top line results at Chanticleer, which are demonstrating dramatic growth as the company's restaurant portfolio grows. The company exited 1H14 having generated more revenue than all of 2013, and we expect continued sequential growth in 3Q14 and 4Q14. Moreover, in the first half of 2014, Chanticleer has generated $791,000 of adjusted restaurant EBITDA - more than three times as much as it did for all of 2013. Although this figure is at the restaurant level and excludes many corporate and non-cash charges, we view it as significant in that it appears to prove the viability of the model.
The report is available here: HOTR Initiation Report. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, Capital IQ, FactSet, and Zack's. The report will also be available on these platforms.
Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.
About Chanticleer Holdings, Inc
Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Chanticleer Holdings (HOTR), together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates restaurant brands in the United States and internationally. The Company is a franchisee owner of Hooters(R) restaurants in international markets including Australia, England, South Africa, Hungary, and Brazil, and recently acquired two Hooters restaurants in the United States. The Company also owns and operates American Roadside Burgers, Spoon Bar & Kitchen and owns a majority interest in Just Fresh restaurants in the U.S.
For further information, please visit www.chanticleerholdings.com
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About SeeThruEquity
SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. We do not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. We are approved to contribute our research to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks and distribute our research to our database of opt-in investors. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.
Contact:
Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
(646) 495-0939
SOURCE: SeeThruEquity