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Note 6 – Long-Term Debt

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Long-term debt consists of the following (in thousands):

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Interest expense, net for the Company’s debt arrangements, excluding the amortization of debt issuance costs, debt original issuance discount and fees, was $10.0 million and $1.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and $19.3 million and $5.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Capitalized interest was $0.9 million and $1.8 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, respectively. Capitalized interest was $0.5 million and $1.1 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively.

As of September 30, 2024, the Company had $5.9 million in standby letters of credit outstanding for certain restaurants and $34.1 million available in its revolving credit facility, subject to certain conditions.

Credit and Guarantee Agreement

In connection with the Benihana Acquisition, on May 1, 2024, the Company entered into a credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) with Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., HPS Investment Partners, LLC and HG Vora Capital Management, LLC (collectively, the “Lenders”). The Credit Agreement provides a $350.0 million senior secured term loan facility (the “Term Loan Facility”) and a $40.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Facility”, and together with the Term Loan Facility, the “Facilities”), up to $10.0 million of which will be available in the form of letters of credit. On May 1, 2024, the Company borrowed $350.0 million under the Term Loan Facility and the Revolving Facility was and remains undrawn.

The Term Loan Facility is not subject to a financial covenant and the Revolving Facility’s financial covenant will apply only after 35% of the Revolving Facility’s capacity has been drawn.

The Term Loan Facility bears interest at a margin over a reference rate selected at the option of the borrower. The margin for the Term Loan Facility is 6.5% per annum for SOFR borrowings and 5.5% per annum for base rate borrowings. The Term Loan Facility matures on the fifth anniversary of the date of the related loan agreement. The Term Loan Facility is payable in quarterly installments commencing with the fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2024, and are 1% per annum for the first year (through June 30, 2025), then 2.5% per annum for the next two years (through June 2027), then 5% per annum thereafter through maturity on April 30, 2029.

The Revolving Facility bears interest at a margin over a reference rate selected at the option of the borrower. The margin for the Revolving Facility is set quarterly based on the Company’s Consolidated Net Leverage Ratio for the preceding four fiscal quarters and ranges from 5.5% to 6.0% per annum for SOFR borrowings and 4.5% to 5.0% for base rate borrowings. The Revolving Facility matures on November 1, 2028.

The Company’s weighted average interest rate on the borrowings under the Credit and Guarantee Agreement as of September 30, 2024 was 11.83%.

As of September 30, 2024, the Company had $0.6 million of debt issuance costs and $14.3 million of debt original issuance discount related to the Credit Agreement, which were capitalized and are recorded as a direct deduction to long-term debt and less than $0.1 million in debt issuance costs and $1.7 million of debt original issuance discount recorded in Other Assets on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.

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Debt Extinguishment

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On October 4, 2019, the Company entered into the credit agreement with Goldman Sachs, which was replaced with the Credit Agreement described above on May 1, 2024. The Goldman Sachs credit agreement provided for a secured revolving credit facility of $12.0 million, a $25.0 million term loan and a $50.0 million delayed draw term loan. On May 1, 2024, the outstanding loan balance was repaid and the unamortized debt issuance costs of $1.7 million and fees incurred of $2.4 million were recognized as a loss on early debt extinguishment on the condensed consolidated statements of operations.