Conference nyoss1::market_investing

I was standing in a long line for the Westford Boston Chicken, Sunday night
at 7:15, thinking the same thing: "How can I invest in this company?".  They
have over 200 stores, I think, judging from the menu that I picked up.
Great food.

John Piekos

    I called up Alex Brown and Sons. They told me that they don't have a 
    prospectus. Merrill Lynch seems to be closed today?
    
    I would like to get in on this IPO but I'm not sure if I can or not.
    both the brokerage firms are full bokerage firms. Are there expensive?
    
    Since I'm new to IPO's, is there a minumum amount of shares you have to
    buy.
    
    
    
    Raj
    

	If this IPO is expected to be hot, do not even bother calling up 
	the underwriters, as most of their offering may have already been 
	spoken for (for their larger clients, which I doubt any of us are
	here). 

	If you are desperate to buy into this stock, you may want to place a 
	market order first thing in the morning when they open. 

	If the general IPO trend is of any indication, a hot IPO stock will 
	rise a lot within the first few minutes of trading, stay at that value
	for a few days and then climb down. If the stock makes fundamental
	or technical sense at that point, buy into it. 

	FWIW. 

    You have two other options in the Roasted Chicken market.  KFC has
    recently come out with it's own Rotisserie [sp?] chicken. And, perhaps
    little known in the great Northeast, is KENNY ROGERS CHICKEN! Yes, the
    great Kenny Rogers [Rodgers] of CW fame.  He was interviewed in Vegas
    last week when he was in to film a movie and he said he was really most
    interested 'these days' in his restaurants which sell Roasted Chicken.
    Side story went on to state that Roasted Chicken in the next FF fad.

re: .2

The prospectus is not available yet.  Merrill Lynch estimates another week.
The offering, as I think was already mentioned, should be in early-mid
November.

As .3 mentioned, this offering will be HOT - no doubt in my mind.
So, your only shot at this one is to buy it through any broker in the 
aftermarket as soon as it opens for trading.

    If this IPO is going to be so hot with all the initial shares bought up
    and bid up on the first day, why doesn't Boston Chicken raise the
    initial price of the shares to get a bigger chunk of the pie for
    themselves?

    ---Phil

    There was a great article on Boston Chicken and the roasted chicken FF
    industry in general in last Sunday's NYT in the business section.

    There was another IPO yesterday for another FF grilled chicken firm 
    (Pollo something or other).  It was offered at 13 and change and closed
    at 19 and change.  It seems to fit the speculation that roasted/grilled 
    chicken is the fast food of the future.

    This looks like the next Snapple.
    
    I can stop in the local Shaw's supermarket and buy a roasted chicken,
    if fact I do just that once every couple weeks.  And the checkout line
    (express) is never very long.  Why would I want to pay more and 
    wait in line longer?
    
      John

	Re. .9

	John,

	> Why would I want to pay more and wait in line longer?

	For the same reasons as to why people wait long while getting bitten
	by mosquitos to buy Kimball's(**) ice cream when they could buy
	cheaper ice cream at the local supermarkets. But you should know that,
	John. 

	** For those not in the GMA area, Kimball's is an ice cream store
	in Westford MA. It's open only about 6 months a year from April
	to October. On a hot summer night, you can expect to wait about
	an hour to get your turn. Their ice creams are legendary. 

    Re .9:
    
    In my view, there are two reasons why people flock to Boston Chicken:
    
    1) The same reason they go to MacDonald's instead of buying their
       burgers at the local Shaw's
    
    2) The side dishes are yummy (KFC's sides are all starch -- no
       imagination now that the original Colonel has fled the nest)
    
    But my broker tells me he'll have to scramble to find any shares for
    me. 

Reprinted w/o permission from the WSJ.  October 18, 1993.
    
     What goes around has finally come around - or so they are saying in the 
fast food chicken industry these days.
     Chicken cooked on a spit -- a staple of delicatessens, convenience stores
and some supermarkets -- is becoming the hot new fare for U.S. restaurant
entrepreneurs.  Chains featuring marinated birds roasting over an open fire or
rotating on electric grills behind glass are proliferating the way pizza 
parlors once did.
     Even fried-chicken king KFC Corp. is promoting a rotisserie product with
what the company says is its costliest advertising campaign ever.  Introductory
ads feature a "secret" Col. Sanders recipe for skewered chicken suddenly 
turning up -- just in time to capitalize on consumer desires for a more 
healthful drumstick, or at least one that tastes different.
     "Our goal is ultimately to build as big a nonfried business as we have a 
fried one today," a KFC spokesman says.  The company, a PepsiCo Inc. unit, 
projects $700 million in sales this year from the product it calls Rotisserie
Gold.  The chain is already selling about $2 million of the product each day, 
or 30% of average daily sales, a spokesman says, adding: "We haven't seen sales 
like this in 10 years."
     True, there are problems with slow-cooked "fast" food.  In a Des Moines,
Iowa, KFC recently, a noontime customer angrily left when told the restaurant
was out of dark rotisserie chicken and more wouldn't be ready for another 30
minutes.  Spokesmen for several chains acknowledge that accurately predicting
usage isn't easy but note they are developing "reuse" recipes that put 
rotisserie lefovers in sandwiches, soups and pot pies.
     But plenty of business people believe the potential of rotisserie chicken
outweighs any problems.  For example, John Y. Brown, who founded Kentucky Fried
Chicken 30 years ago, now touts roasted chicken as the fowl of the future.  The
onetime Kentucky governor has teamed up with Kenny Rogers, the country and 
western singer, to form Roasters Corp., based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  The
company opened its 100th Kenny Rogers Roasters outlet earlier this month.
     The largest U.S. chain dedicated solely to rotisserie poultry is Boston
Chicken Inc., with 166 stores in 16 states and about to test investor tastes 
for its menu with an initial public offering.  Both Boston Chicken and Roasters
intend to add several hundred outlets each in the next few years.  "Jump from 
the frying pan into the fire," a Roasters videoutape urges would-be franchisees.
     Rotisserie chicken promoters seem as eager to entice new investors as 
patrons.  Although it operates only a handful of restaurants so far, Clucker's
Wood Roaster Chicken Inc., Miami, already has sold licensing rights to its 
version of rotisserie chicken for Mexico and Central America.  Roasters recently
comleted a joint venture with a Malaysian group.
     "This isn't a passing fad," contends Ronald Paul, president of Technomic
Inc., a Chicago concern that tracks the country's eating-out habits.  
Rotisserie chicken "is a better-tasting product than any other perceived 
chicken alternative has been."  But, he adds, "that doesn't mean that we might 
not open too many restaurants."
     An eventual shakeout does seem likely; still, the potential appeal of a 
leaner chicken with a new taste is the talk of the restaurant industry.  
Americans already eat more chicken than beef.  But as fat and cholesterol 
concerns linger, chefs are being pushed to find novel ways to prepare poultry.
The National Restaurant Association estimates that while total chicken orders 
in restaurants rose 5% last year, those for fried chicken fell 3%.
     Rotisserie chains marinate their chicken -- spiced citrus juice is 
currently popular -- then grill them for 90 minutes or so.  This process allows
the fat to drip out, leaves meat moist, and gives the skin a Thanksgiving 
turkey sheen.
     KFC's Rotisserie Gold contains 42% fewer calories and 42% less fat than 
its Extra Tasty Crispy, a fried product.  Roasted pieces also have 24% fewer
calories and 21% less fat than the colonel's Original Recipe.
     While the chains seek to differentiate themselves with their ambience --
Kenny Roger's stores show country-and-western music videos -- or the type of 
wood on the fire, their menus seem interchangeable.  "Homestyle" or "made-from-
scratch" side dishes are a feature at Boston Chicken, Kenny Rogers Roasters,
Cluckers and KFC.  Buttered corn on the cob, dilled new potatoes, creamed 
spinach and cornbread muffins, along with a macaroni or rice dish and some sort
of apple dessert, are typical fare.
     Unlike many fried chicken outlets, the rotisserie concerns typically don't
sell poultry by the piece.  Whole, half or quarter chickens are the norm, with 
a half generally going for between $4.49 and $5.99 and a whole bird for around
$7.49.  Complete meals -- a whole chicken plus two side dishes -- can cost up t
to $12.99.
     But not everone in the chicken business is smitten with grilling.  "We 
have roasted chicken in a limited-store test at Popeyes, but I don't think 
you'll see a big push," says Dennis Campbell, vice president of product 
research and development at America's Favorite Chicken Co., which owns the 
Church's and Popeyes fried-chicken chains.  "We're not convinced that the 
investment it would take is justifiable long-term," he says.
     Indeed, last year, only about 18% of chicken consumed outside homes was 
non-fried, according to NPD Crest, a Chicago-area research concern.  But 
entrepreneurs like Mr. Brown are undeterred.  Searching for an encore in the 
chicken busines, he began fiddling with rotisserie chicken in 1985, installing
a French spit in a Louisville, Ky., store he called Le Chicken Grill.  The 
place "broke even" he says.  Next, Mr. Brown hooked up with Mr. Rogers, "an old
friend" for whom the former governor had big plans.  "PR really launched our 
company," Mr. Brown says of Kentucky Fried Chicken, noting that every time Col.
Sanders went on television, sales soared.
     We're on our way to building another KFC," Mr. Brown says, noting per 
store annual sales of "over $1 million."  About half that business was takeout 
he says.
     Back at the nation's dominant chicken chain, KFC franchisees say the 
addition of nonfried chicken already is bringing in customers who previously
shunned the standard fried fare.  John R. Neal, a KFC franchisee in Columbia,
Tenn., puts it this way: "What the colonel did by taking the woman out of the
kitchen, we hope this will take the man off the barbecue grill."

    Where are Boston Chicken's stocks being traded, in NASDAQ or NYSE? 
    Anyone know the symbol?
    

When it begins trading sometime in November, its NASDAQ symbol will be BOST.

    Re .6:
    
    Merrill Lynch and Alex Brown, the lead underwriters, just decided to
    raise the offering price from $15-$17 to $19-$20.  It should be out
    the week of November 15th.
    
    This issue is so hot, I doubt us ordinary folks will get a bite of it.
    After looking at the picture in the prospectus, my broker said he got
    so hungry he hurried over to the local outlet and grabbed a meal. 

I just heard from a broker at Merrill Lynch.  The IPO is set to go today.  He
sais that there are market orders for about 700,000 shares with the expected
price range of $38-40.  The stock was priced overnight at $20; anyone able to
get in on the ground floor doubled their money in a heartbeat, I guess.

Tom

	What are March 25 puts priced at? :-) :-)

    There is an article in todays' WSJ (Heard on the Street Column) Page C1
    regarding the IPO and Chicken Mania.   Based on this article, most
    institutions who bought the stock pre-IPO were the sellers yesterday.
    It also indicatede that the officers have the right to sell close to
    900,000 prefferd shares which they bought at $20 in about 120 days (the
    law for insiders to sell).  Very negative article on the public buying
    frenzy of this stock. 
    
    The financial data on the company were given as follows:
    
    1991   Rev.   $5.2 Mil  Net  (-$2.6)
    1992   Rev.   $8.3 Mil  Net  (-$5.9)
    1993-date    $28.2 Mil  Net   $0.3
    
    I guess we have to wait and see where this stock is when the 6 months
    grace period goes by.