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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, January 2, 2001

Pizza chain owners plan to sell stock

WASHINGTON -- California Pizza Kitchen Inc., owner and franchiser of 112 pizza restaurants, filed for an offering of 3.4 million common shares including sales by its co-chairmen and other big shareholders.

The Los Angeles-based company filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission to sell 200,000 of the shares, raising funds for general purposes. Investors and executives plan to sell the other 3.2 million shares.

The company's shares fell $2.75 in midmorning trading to $25.50, about a 10 percent drop though still 70 percent above the $15 price of the initial public offering last August. Co-Chairman Larry Flax, 58, is selling 351,237 of the shares, cutting his current 8.5 percent stake to 6.3 percent with about 1.2 million shares. Richard Rosenfield, 55, the other co-chairman, plans to offer 356,133 shares, reducing his holdings from 7.9 percent to 5.8 percent with 1.1 million shares, according to the filing. The two co-founders gave up their law practice to open the first California Pizza Kitchen in 1985. Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co., the company's top investor with a 25 percent stake, plans to sell about 1.6 million shares, retaining a stake of 16 percent.