Chanticleer Holdings, Inc., a minority owner in the privately-held parent company of the Hooters^® brand, Hooters of America (“HOA”), and a franchisee of international Hooters^® restaurants, announced today its financial results for the second quarter and first six months ended June 30, 2012.

Financial Highlights

• Chanticleer reported record revenue of $1.7 million for the second quarter, an increase of 54% as compared to pro forma revenue of $1.1 million for the same period in 2011.
• Chanticleer reported record revenue of $3.1 million for first six months of 2012, an increase of 23% as compared to pro forma revenue of $2.5 million for the same period in 2011.
• In aggregate, total revenue among Chanticleer’s four South Africa Hooters locations grew by 22.7% on a sequential quarter-over-quarter basis.
• Chanticleer completed in June an $11,000,000 secondary public offering with a simultaneous up-listing to the NASDAQ.

Mike Pruitt, President and CEO of Chanticleer, commented, “Our most recent international Hooters restaurant which opened in February 2012 in the Emperor’s Palace Casino in South Africa, which had a net cost to open of approximately $700,000, has been a tremendous success. In just the first 4 1/2 months of operation, it generated revenue of approximately $1.1 million and operating income of approximately $180,000, or 16% of revenue.  With the recent successful completion of our $11 million secondary public offering, we are now positioned to continue our plan of taking the iconic Hooters restaurant brand to our exclusive international franchise territories.”

Outlook:

Mr. Pruitt remarked, “We have exciting things happening in the second half of 2012 and beyond. As previously announced, our new Hooters in Budapest, Hungary will open to the public on August 27, 2012. Our planned location in Surfers Paradise, Australia is currently under construction and will open by year-end. New Hooters openings in 2012 will total four, increasing our number of international Hooters locations to seven. We will continue to focus on opening new Hooters branded restaurants in our exclusive international franchise territories and plan to have at least 12 units opened by the end of 2013. We envision Chanticleer Holdings could grow to have more than 75 Hooters locations in our current exclusive international markets.”

Second Quarter 2012 Results:

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, total revenue increased to $1.7 million, compared to total revenue of $32,830 in the second quarter of 2011. This growth is attributable to gaining majority ownership in our first three South African restaurants on September 30, 2011, at which point we began to consolidate our South African Hooters operations, effective October 1, 2011.

Total revenue of $1.7 million during the second quarter of 2012 increased by 54% as compared to the year ago period’s pro forma revenue of $1.1 million. Total revenue of $3.1 million for the 6 months ending June 30, 2012 increased by 23% over the year ago period’s pro forma revenue of $2.5 million. On an unaudited basis, pro forma results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2011 are results as if the Company had acquired majority ownership of the first three South African Hooters restaurants on January 1, 2011.   Revenue growth was also attributable to one new restaurant opening in Cape Town South Africa in June 2011, which increased the number of operational restaurants in South Africa to three.

Q2 2012 revenue from our South African locations increased 23% sequentially over Q1 2012, primarily due to our new Hooters location in the Emperor’s Palace Casino in South Africa being operational for the entire quarter. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2012, South Africa locations’ EBITDA margin was 14.6% and 13.7%, respectively.

The Company reported a net loss of ($0.49) per share in Q2 2012 as compared to a net loss of ($0.18) per share in the year ago, and a pro forma loss of ($0.13) per share in Q2 2011. The increase in loss per share is attributable to an increase in general and administrative expenses, and interest expense. The increase G & A expense was due to increased consulting fees for our Brazil and Hungary territories, an increase in investor relations related fees, and a one-time non-recurring expense of approximately $112,000 attributable to our $11 million public offering. Going forward in 2012, we expect our G & A expenses to stay relatively flat and our interest expense to decrease significantly.

In June 2012, the Company successfully completed an $11 million secondary public offering, where the company received net proceeds of approximately $10.1 million before expenses. We have used a portion of this capital to pay off substantially all of our existing debt, with the substantial remainder of capital to be used to open new Hooters restaurants in South Africa, Brazil, Hungary, Australia and Europe.

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