Major Stake In Restaurants Unlimited Sold

Restaurants Unlimited Inc. said 80 percent of the company has been bought by Eli Jacobs, a New York investor who owns the Baltimore Orioles and other businesses, for an undisclosed cash price.

The sale price for the 80 percent interest could be in the range of $50 million, according to estimates by a Seattle business analyst.

``It is a big number,'' said Rich Komen, RUI founder, chairman and until this week the company's largest stockholder. The other shareholders are Komen's three sons, plus nine managers and executives at RUI.

Komen said he expects no changes in management or operation of the company, which owns 21 restaurants, including Triples, Cutters and Palomino in Seattle and is planning to build its largest restaurant next year at the Elliott Bay Marina.

The company also owns Cinnabon, a division with nearly 150 outlets baking and selling cinnamon rolls, many in shopping centers.

Komen said he and a dozen other stockholders still own about 20 percent of RUI stock. He described the deal as friendly. ``Eli does not do hostile takeovers,'' he said.

Komen said Jacobs ``approached us quite out of the blue'' in the summer of 1989. ``They said some very flattering things about us and talked about some numbers that shocked us.''

Jeff Atkin, an analyst for Kunath Karren Rinne and Atkin in Seattle, said some large restaurant companies recently have sold for roughly 50 percent to 60 percent of their annual sales.

RUI is expecting sales of about $120 million this year. Atkin's estimate would value RUI at $60 million to $72 million.

Komen said buyout discussions with Jacobs began in August 1989.

The stock sale will not provide new capital to RUI, which has no long-term debt. ``We have not had a capital problem,'' Komen said. Instead, the money will go to Komen and the other stockholders.

Komen said Jacobs' unsolicited offer came at an opportune time. ``We had been looking in the past couple of years for a way to provide some liquidity to our shareholders, so they could turn some of their shares into money instead of just hope.

Jacobs, who could not be reached for comment, owns numerous other companies, including a breakfast-oriented restaurant chain, Komen said.

``Eli's style is to support the management teams in the companies he controls,'' he said. ``He tries to help them with their problems but leaves them alone and lets them run the company. That was a very, very important consideration to us.''

Specifically, Jacobs might help RUI break into some East Coast markets, Komen said. Most of the company's restaurants are in the West, although it has one in operation and another under construction in Minneapolis and one open in Philadelphia.

``We would like very much to be in Boston and Washington, and we have been looking at opportunities there,'' Komen said.