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NEW YORK - National Restaurants Management Inc., New York City's largest operator of fast-food brands and chain dinner houses, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to erase the massive debts that have hobbled the company for more than a decade.
The prepackaged federal court filing by NRMI, an arm of the Riese Organization, includes a proposed restructuring plan that seeks to repay a $117.8 million loan. In addition to retiring most of its debt load, the proposed restructuring would consolidate the ownership of the company, allow for the expansion of several concepts NRMI franchises from others and potentially permit the operator to become a franchisor in its own right.
The Manhattan-based company operates about 100 restaurants in the city, including such quickservice chains as Nathan's Famous, Roy Rogers, Pizza Hut, Dunkin' Donuts and KFC. National also operates Lindy's, Houlihan's and Martini's.
Together with the parent Riese Organization-whose local operations include TGI. Friday's and Tad's Steaks - the company has about 130 locations in New York's five boroughs and generated sales of about $150 million in sales for the fiscal year ended April 1999. National contributed about $100 million to that total.
According to the bankruptcy filing, the company has about $8.7 million in assets and about $140.7 million in liabilities - which includes the $117.8 million loan to Natrest Funding Inc.
Dennis Riese, chairman and chief executive of the Riese Organization, said that, once concluded, the proposed restructuring would leave his company "virtually debt free."
Furthermore,...