Business
Pizza Pizza Royalty Income Fund Announces July Distribution and Sales Growth
Pizza Pizza Royalty Income Fund Announces July Distribution and Sales Growth.
About this update from Pizza Pizza Royalty Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, July 20 /CNW/ - Pizza Pizza Royalty Income Fund (the "Fund")\n(TSX: PZA.UN) today announced a cash distribution of $0.073 per unit for the\nmonth of July 2007. The distribution will be payable to unitholders of record\nat the close of business on July 31, 2007, and will be paid on August 15,\n2007.\n\n\nBusiness activities underlying the Fund continued to be solid in the\nsecond quarter ended June 30, 2007 as Pizza Pizza Limited experienced 4.3%\nsame-store sales growth over the same period last year. System Sales of the\nPizza Pizza restaurants in the Royalty Pool for the second quarter increased\nby $6.1 million or 7.1% to $92.2 million compared to $86 million for the same\nquarter in the prior year. The increase in sales reflects the impact of sales\ngenerated by new restaurants in the Royalty Pool and an increase in same store\nsales.\n\n\nABOUT THE FUND\n\n\nThe Fund is a limited purpose, open-ended trust established under the\nlaws of Ontario to indirectly acquire the trademarks and trade names used by\nPizza Pizza in its restaurants. The trademarks were licensed to Pizza Pizza in\nJuly 2005 for 99 years, for which Pizza Pizza pays the Fund a royalty equal to\n6% of the system sales of its Pizza Pizza restaurants in the royalty pool. As\nof January 1, 2007, there were 531 Pizza Pizza restaurants in the royalty\npool.\n\n\nSince its initial public offering in 2005, the Fund has increased\ndistributions four times while maintaining a 5% same restaurant sales growth.\nThe last distribution increase was in January 2007 when monthly distributions\nwere increased from $0.071 per unit to $0.073 per unit.\n\n\nA key attribute of the Fund's structure is the fact that it is a\n"top-line" fund. Royalty income of the Fund is based on top-line system sales\nof the royalty pool restaurants and is not determined by the profitability of\neither Pizza Pizza or the Pizza Pizza restaurants in the royalty pool. Given\nthis structure, the success of the Fund depends primarily on the ability of\nPizza Pizza to maintain and increase system sales of the royalty pool.\n\n\nThe Fund's trust units are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the\nsymbol PZA.UN.\n\n\nABOUT PIZZA PIZZA LIMITED\n\n\nPizza Pizza Limited, a privately-held Canadian corporation, is one of\nCanada's most successful operators in the qui...