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Golden Gate Capital
“Bought Red Lobster, sold the buildings out from under it for $1.5 billion, then walked away before the bankruptcy.”
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Formerly Owned
Golden Gate wrote the modern manual for asset-stripping a restaurant chain. They bought Red Lobster from Darden for $2.1 billion in 2014, immediately sold $1.5 billion worth of the buildings — then forced Red Lobster to rent back its own restaurants. They nearly made back the purchase price on day one while saddling the chain with rent it never had before. Rent climbed to $191 million per year by 2023. Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May 2024, closing about 100 locations. Golden Gate had already sold the chain and walked away clean.
Founded 2000 · San Francisco, CA