Silver Diner narrows 1st-q loss, posts 3% sales rise, to $9.7m

Nation's Restaurant News, June 17, 2002

ROCKVILLE, MD. -Silver Diner Inc., which recently announced a plan to take the company private, posted a loss of $175,273 for the first quarter ended April 21.

By comparison, the company reported a loss of $778,046 in the year-ago quarter.

Silver Diner, which operates 12 flagship restaurants, tallied a 3-percent rise in revenue, to $9.69 million, compared with $9.38 million in the same period last year.

Same-store sales, including one store that was closed for 25 days in the most recent quarter because of a fire, rose 10.2 percent.

In the most recent quarter the company recorded expenses of $58,260 related to its proposal for going private.

In early May, Silver Diner announced a plan for a 1-for-5,000 reverse stock split of its common stock and a cash payment of 32 cents for each share before the split rather than the issuance of any fractional shares of common stock.

Upon the reverse stock split and the subsequent reduction in shareholders, Silver Diner said it would have the right under Securities and Exchange Commission rules to terminate the registration of its common shares in the public market. The plan is subject to shareholder approval.

On a fully diluted basis, the first-quarter loss per share was 1 cent, compared with a loss per share of 7 cents in the year-ago quarter.