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To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (143857)	7/17/2002 6:59:58 PM
From: John Chen	Respond to of 164684

Victor,re:"Make a mistake...Next Tuesday". Fair enough. We all make mistake. Is it on the 'positive' or 'negative' side?

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (143857)	7/17/2002 7:51:32 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Who's buying Red Robin? I said the fly with my little eye. I'm buying Red Robin.:>) Btw I wonder if Craig eats at the Red Robin. There's one near the concentration camp he manages in Seattle. >>In business for more than 30 years, restaurant chain Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (proposed ticker: RRGB) owns and operates 90 restaurants and another 99 are operated under franchises or license agreements in the U.S. and Canada. By 1995, company-owned restaurants under-performed sales at franchisees by 23%. To help the faltering business, the company hired its top performing franchisee, Mike Snyder to bring his magic to the whole company. Under his leadership the restaurant chain was recapitalized in May 2000 when it acquired Snyder's 14 franchise units and private equity firm Quad-C invested $25 million in the company. Red Robin's operating income in 2001, following the recapitalization, rose a staggering 113% to $18.7 million. For the same year net income shrank by 50% to $7.7 million while revenues grew by 195 to $215 million. In first quarter of the year, Red Robin appears to reverse the downward movement of the bottom line. Earnings in Q1 of this year jumped to $2.5 million, a 32% improvement over the same period the previous year. Comparables Most IPOs from restaurant chains have performed poorly over the past four years, with only the $79.5 million August 2000 IPO of California Pizza Kitchen (ticker: CPKI) and the March 2001 deal from AFC Enterprises (ticker: AFCE) still trading well above their offering prices. CPKI shares priced at the top of their range and gained 35% on their opening day of trading. The stock currently trades around 46% above its $15 IPO price. AFC Enterprises raised $159 million and also priced at the top of its range. AFCE rose 19% on its first day of trading and now trades at $23.44, or 37% over its $17 offering price. Of course, any discussion of food or restaurant IPOs reminds most investors of a deal that almost has become an IPO legend – Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (ticker: KKD). The sweet and virtually addictive southern export raised a relatively small $63 million when it went public in April 2000. Investors couldn't get enough of the deal and pushed the IPO to price above its range. The new shares soared 76% on their market debut and now trade an astounding 572% above their original $21 per share offering price. While Red Robin is no Krispy Kreme and no IPO has gained more than 66% on opening day since May 2001, demand for the offering is rumored to be strong.<< The Deal Red Robin intends to sell just over 5 million shares with a range of $14-$16. The company, led by Banc of America Securities and U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, expects to raise $76 million to repay debts and open new restaurants. Other recent IPOs were forced to cut their ranges to stir up sufficient demand. As of the publishing of this article Wednesday afternoon, underwriters gave no indication that they would need to reduce the offering price in order to complete this deal. Under current market conditions, underwriters must attempt to predict the next swing of the broader markets. No company wants to risk debuting its shares on the same day the major indexes and dropping 2-3%. Since it's difficult to predict when the next bad news will strike, the challenge for underwriters is in determining whether demand is strong enough to risk pricing in a rocky market. So far all signs appear to point to a green light for Red Robin. ipo.com