BOCA RATON, Fla. -- W. R. Grace & Co. said it has signed an agreement to sell its Del Taco Restaurants Inc. properties to PepsiCo Inc.'s Taco Bell unit.
'Basically, we are getting out of the restaurant business,' Chuck Suits, a spokesman for Grace, adding that Grace will continue to operate its Laurel, Md.
-based 18-store chain called American Cafe operating cafes in Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland.
Suits would not comment on the price of the transaction for Del Taco, based in Atlanta.
In November, Grace announced a business plan that would concentrate six core businesses. Suits said five of those core businesses included specialty chemicals and one in healthcare.
The agreement with Taco Bell and Del Taco, which operates stores under the Del Taco and Taco Villa Mexican names, will take place over a nine-months period. The Del Taco resataurants are located in the Southeast, primarily in Georgia, and in Texas.
'This transaction to divest the Del Taco unit is consistent with the previously announced strategy and will conclude Grace's effort to remove the company from the Mexican restaurant business,' the company said.
In late trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Grace's stock was down 0.125 cents to $37.50.
Grace is one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the world.
