New York-based activist investor Starboard Value LP has taken a 5.6% stake in Darden Restaurants Inc. A source told Reuters that Starboard plans to disclose the stake purchase in a regulatory filing on Monday.
According to the report, the stake acquired by Starboard is worth about $374 million based on Darden's market value at the close of trading on Friday. This means that Starboard will become the second activist investor within months to push for a strategy change in Darden.
Starboard's filing comes just days after Darden announced plans to spin off its Red Lobster restaurant business, Reuters said.
The source said that Starboard will state in its filing that it does not believe spinning off Red Lobster is enough to benefit shareholders. Instead, the activist investor wants Darden to first create a real estate investment trust (REIT) for its property holdings.
Starboard wants Darden to combine its Red Lobster, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse businesses into one company, while grouping the rest of its faster-growing chains in another, the Reuters source said.
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