Jonathan Lennon’s Pleasant Lake Partners has recently disclosed a stake in Del Taco Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:TACO), which amasses 11.5% of the company’s outstanding stock. Del Taco Holdings, a California-based restaurant chain specializes in American and American-style Mexican foods, recently merged with a subsidiary of Levy Acquisition Corp., creating a new company, Del Taco Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:TACO). According to the filing, Pleasant Lake holds 4.46 million shares of Del Taco Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:TACO).
New York-based Pleasant Lake Partners is an activist hedge fund co-founded by Jonathan Lennon in 2012. Lennon previously worked as a general stock analyst at John Thaler’s JAT Capital prior to launching his own firm. Lennon employs a concentrated approach to invest in global stocks with a focus on consumer, industrial/natural resources, and media companies. At the end of March, the value of Pleasant Lake’s public equity portfolio stood at $109.6 million. Pleasant Lake’s latest 13F revealed that, during the first quarter, the investor had a strong focus on consumer stocks, which represent over 70% of its equity portfolio. The fund’s top holdings are represented by Famous Dave’s of America Inc. (NASDAQ:DAVE), Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV), and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co (NASDAQ:HMHC).
Recently, Pleasant Lake disclosed upping its position in MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:MX) to 3.39 million shares. The activist stake accounts for 9.95% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Korea-based MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:MX) is a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for consumer, computing, communication, industrial, automotive and IoT applications.
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Levy Acquisition Corp., a blank check company, was formed in 2013 for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination. The company completed its initial public offering (IPO) in November 2013, offering of 15 million units, each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one-half of one warrant. Following the completion of merger with Del Taco, Levy Acquisition became Del Taco Restaurants.