FA buyer is being sought for the Subway sandwich chain. Subway announced on Tuesday that the shareholders were considering a sale and would have hired the US bank JP Morgan to do so. At the same time, it is still unclear whether and in what period of time a deal could be made, the company restricted. There will be no further comments until a possible conclusion.
The announcement comes as no surprise. The Wall Street Journal reported in early January that Subway was preparing to sell. The price could reach more than ten billion dollars (9.3 billion euros), the newspaper wrote at the time, citing informed people.
Subway is run by the families of founders Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck. Another indication of an impending sale was that the 50 percent stake held by Buck, who died in 2021, was transferred to the family’s charitable foundation in early February. After this step, there would be no tax on a sale of the stake.
As an unlisted company, Subway keeps a low profile when it comes to business figures. According to the most recent available information, the chain had around 20,000 restaurants in the US and almost 37,000 worldwide. Company boss John Chidsey recently announced that he intends to increase the number of locations outside the USA to 25,000.
Subway dates back to a sandwich shop that DeLuca opened in 1965 after Buck loaned him $1,000. The original name “Pete’s Super Submarines” eventually became Subway.