It’s been a fortnight since the release of Guzman y Gomez’s prospectus, and the Mexican food chain – the great hope of reviving the country’s comatose IPO market – continues to provide beautiful belches well after consumption. It’s a burrito company, reader, how much can it cost, $2.2 billion?
The company’s co-CEO and chief burrito Steven Marks and sous chef Tom Cowan from TDM Partners (the company’s largest shareholder) have been explaining away the accounting nasty, aired in this masthead last week: the company’s leases, worth almost $18 million next financial year (its second-largest cost), are not being included to calculate its enterprise value to EBITDA multiple, which in effect makes its price appear reasonable to that of US rivals.