A cup of coffee and strawberry frosted donut with sprinkles at a Dunkin’ Donuts location in Los Angeles, Sept. 6, 2017.<\/p>\n
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Dunkin’ and Buffalo Wild Wings owner <\/strong>Inspire Brands has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, the company announced<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n If Inspire goes public, it will be one of the biggest-ever restaurant offerings. Private equity firm Roark Capital, which backs Inspire, is reportedly seeking<\/a> a valuation of roughly $20 billion.<\/p>\n Inspire was founded in 2018 through a merger between Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings<\/a>. Acquisitions followed: Sonic Drive-In later in 2018 and Jimmy John’s in 2019. And in 2020, Inspire took Dunkin’ and its sister chain Baskin Robbins private in an $11 billion deal.<\/p>\n Across those six chains, Inspire has more than 33,300 restaurants worldwide and $33.4 billion in annual sales, according to the company’s website. <\/p>\n Inspire isn’t the only restaurant company pursuing an IPO. Last month, Jersey Mike’s<\/a> also announced that it had confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. <\/p>\n The market for initial public offerings has been tepid, although that could change later this year. Market volatility, economic uncertainty and recent poor performance among IPO stocks has led to a backlog of listings. <\/p>\n However, several blockbuster IPOs, such as the SpaceX offering<\/a> that could value the company at more than $1 trillion, are anticipated in the coming months.<\/p>\n