Star Buffet, Inc.
Ticker:STRZ 440 Lawndale Drive
Exchange:NASDAQ-National Market Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Industry:Retail (SIC Code 5812) (801) 463-5500
# of Employees:1640

Offering Information
Type of Shares:Common Shares Filing Date:7/28/97
U.S. Shares:3,000,000 Offer Date:9/24/97
Non-U.S. Shares:0 Filing Range:$10.00 - $12.00
Primary Shares:2,400,000 Offer Price:$12.00
Secondary Shares:600,000 Gross Spread:$0.84
Offering Amount: $33,000,000 Selling:$0.50
Expenses:$700,000 Reallowance:$0.10
Shares Out After:4,500,000

Primary Underwriting Group
ManagerTierPhone
Equitable Securities CorporationLead Manager (615) 780-9380
Cruttenden Roth IncorporatedCo-manager (800) 678-9147
Everen Securities, Inc.Co-manager (312) 574-6859

Legal Counsel, Auditor and Registrar
Issuer's Law Firm: Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth
Bank's Law Firm: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Auditor: KPMG Peat Marwick

Selected Financial Data

Dollar amounts in U.S. millions except for per share data
4 Month Ending Financials
Full Year
Audited
Income
Latest
Unaudited
Income
Prior
Unaudited
Income
Balance
Sheet
1/27/97 5/19/97 5/20/96 5/19/97
Revenue:$57.67$16.58$12.91Assets:$20.18
Net Income:$1.25$1.03$0.25Curr Assets:$1.19
EPS:$0.28$0.23Liabilities:$6.45
Prior EPS:$0.83$1.20Curr Liabilities:$4.16
Cash Flow/Oper:$1.96$0.06-$1.16Equity:$13.73
Cash Flow/Fin:-$1.53-$1.08-$0.03Cash:$0.17
Cash Flow/Inv:-$0.28-$1.08Working Cap:-$2.96

Business Description
The company, through its subsidiaries, owns an operates 16 franchised HomeTown Buffet restaurants, two Mexican-themed restaurants operated under the Casa Bonita name, and seven additional buffet restaurants which operate under "JJ North's Grand Buffet". The Company's restaurants, including the North's Restaurants, are located in nine western states and are focused upon providing customers with a wide variety of fresh, high quality food at modest prices in a warm, friendly atmosphere. The Company believes that regional buffet concepts have certain advantages in their market area over national buffet concepts due to their name recognition and ability to meet the specific taste preferences of their customers, but generally lack the management resources, purchasing power and capital to expand and capitalize on their regional market strength. The Company believes that its ability to reduce administrative expenses and achieve other strategic and financial benefits through increased purchasing power, shared product development and marketing efficiencies and its greater access to capital will provide the Company with significant competitive advantages. The Company plans to actively seek acquisition opportunities which exist due to the fragmentation of the buffet segment of the restaurant industry.

Competition
The restaurant industry is highly competitive. The Company competes on the basis of the quality and value of food products offered, price, service, location and overall dining experience. The Company's primary competitor in the buffet restaurant business is Buffets, Inc., which owns, operates and franchises the HomeTown Buffet and Old Country Buffet restaurant concepts. The Company also competes with a large and diverse group of restaurant chains and individually owned restaurants, including chains and individually owned restaurants that utilize a buffet format. The number of buffet restaurants with operations generally similar to the Company's has grown considerably in the last several years and the Company believes competition among buffet restaurants is increasing. As the Company and its principal competitors expand operations in various geographic areas, competition, including competition among buffet restaurants with concepts similar to the Company's concepts, can be expected to intensify. Such intensified competition could increase the Company's operating costs or adversely affect its revenues. A number of competitors have been in existence longer than the Company and have substantially greater financial, marketing and other resources and wider geographical diversity than the Company. In addition, the restaurant industry has few non-economic barriers to entry and is affected by changes in consumer tastes, national, regional and local economic conditions and market trends. The performance of individual restaurants may be affected by factors such as traffic patterns, demographic considerations and the type, number and location of competing restaurants. The Company's significant investment in and long-term commitment to each of its restaurant sites limits its ability to respond quickly or effectively to changes in local competitive conditions or other changes that could have a material adverse effect on the Company's operations. The Company's continued success is dependent to a substantial extent on its reputation for providing high quality and value and this reputation may be affected not only by the performance of its restaurants but also by the performance of franchisor-owned restaurants and restaurants operated by other franchisees, over which the Company has no control.

Business Plan
The key elements of the company's business plan include: (I) Customer Focus, (ii) High Quality Food, (iii) Superior Service and (iv) Clean and Friendly Environment.

Use of Proceeds
The proceeds from the proposed offering will be used to pay a declared and unpaid cash dividend to the selling shareholder, to acquire equipment under certain operating leases, to finance the cash portion of the consideration to be paid for the North Acquisition, and to repay the Casa Bonita Note, to finance the development or acquisition of additional buffet restaurants and for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Principal and Selling Shareholders
Name of Shareholder% Owned
Before
% Owned
After
CKE Restaurants, Inc.100.00%44.40%
Note: Represents ownership of 5% or more prior to the offering.
Executive Officers and Directors
Officer NameTitleAge
William P. Foley IIChairman of the Board52
Robert E. WheatonChief Executive Officer, President and Director45
Theodore AbajianChief Financial Officer33

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