Financing

Deal on Qdoba is imminent, report says

Jack in the Box is a few weeks away from announcing the winning private-equity bidder for its Qdoba Tex-Mex chain, with the owner of Chuck E. Cheese’s looking like a top contender, the New York Post reported yesterday.

The exclusive report cited multiple sources as indicating Apollo Global Management, the PE company that bought Chuck E. Cheese’s parent CEC Entertainment, as an interested party. The story speculated that Apollo could combine Chuck E. Cheese’s with Qdoba to provide enough critical mass for an IPO of a dual-concept restaurant company.

Neither Apollo nor Jack in the Box responded to the assertions.

Jack in the Box has said it intended to explore alternatives for Qdoba as a way of focusing attention and resources on the company’s core namesake brand.

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