The California owner of the Applebee’s chain is turning dozens more company-owned restaurants over
to franchisees as it pays down debt, but no restaurants in the latest sale pipeline reach into Ohio.
Glendale, Calif.-based DineEquity Inc. this week announced plans to sell 20 company-owned restaurants in Virginia and 36 others in Missouri and Illinois. The move comes only a few months after DineEquity told investors it had deals to sell 63 restaurants in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
DineEquity says it expects to generate about $38 million in after-tax proceeds from the sale of the 56 restaurants in deals projected to close before April 2011. The company also will bring its share of franchisee-owned restaurants past the 90 percent mark.