Struggling Ruby Tuesday restaurant company selling to Atlanta firm

A little more than a year after closing the doors of one of its two Columbus restaurants and about 100 others companywide, the struggling Ruby Tuesday chain is on the selling block.

The Maryville, Tenn.-based company plans to sell the nearly 600 restaurants remaining in the U.S. and overseas to an Atlanta-based private equity firm called NRD Capital, with the purchase expected to close in early 2018. NRD Capital will assume all of Ruby Tuesday’s debt.

The price tag for Ruby Tuesday is about $146 million, which amounts to $2.40 per share for the publicly traded company that once was one of the most successful in the nation. Ruby Tuesday stock, which once traded for more than $30 per share, hit bottom at $1.69 earlier this year.

The Ruby Tuesday restaurant at 6780 Veterans Parkway closed its doors suddenly in August of last year. That location now is occupied by Ben’s ChopHouse, an independent steak and seafood restaurant which relocated in April from The Landings shopping center off Sidney Simons Boulevard to the former Ruby Tuesday structure at the corner of Veterans Parkway and Adams Farm Drive.

The Ruby Tuesday restaurant at Peachtree Mall, 3431 Manchester Expressway, remains open for business.

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Struggling Ruby Tuesday restaurant company selling to Atlanta firm."