Investing.com -- Shares in Fogo de Chao simmered on Friday, jumping more than 30% at one point from an initial public offering of $20, during its highly-anticipated Wall Street debut.
The fine-dining Brazilian Steakhouse chain, which opened its first U.S. restaurant in Dallas in 1996, saw it shares reach as high as $26.55 in Friday's session before closing at $25.75, up 5.75 or 28.75%. The company, which was founded by two sets of brothers in the southeastern Brazilian countryside in 1979, currently owns 26 restaurants in the United States, as well as 10 others in Brazil and one in Mexico. The restaurant was purchased by GP Investments, a Brazilian private equity firm in 2006 and was later sold to U.S. private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners three years ago.
Fogo de Chao CEO Lawrence Johnson indicated on Friday that the company has plans to open an additional 100 restaurants on a long-term basis.
"It's a big day for the company," Johnson told CNBC. "I think it just shows that when you bring out a unique, differentiated concept, when you perfect it and take it to different markets and the public responds, the result is what we're seeing today."
Jefferies and J.P. Morgan Securities are acting as joint book-running managers in the offering, while Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN), Deutsche Bank (XETRA:DBKGn) Securities, Piper Jaffray & Co., Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Macquarie Capital are also acting as book-running managers, Fogo de Chao said in a statement. The offering is expected to close on June 24.
Fogo de Chao employs a Southern Brazilian cooking technique known as churrasco to prepare its barbecued, fire-roasted beef using a traditional gaucho method of roasting meats over an open fire. In English, the Portuguese phrase Fogo de Chao translates to "fire on the ground."
"I knew this was going to be a winner in the U.S.," Johnson added. "I helped the founders open one restaurant in Dallas, another in Houston and the rest is history."