Sarasota firm halts restaurant deal

SARASOTA— Caribbean International Holdings is ending its plans to own and operate several South Of The Border restaurants in the Dominican Republic and other nearby countries. The Sarasota-based company announced that 70 million of the 75 million shares issued by the company to South Of The Border Holdings as part of a venture have been returned to the company.

“The key man in South of the Border Holdings has taken ill and is unable to provide the services/duties on a day-to-day basis that were key components of the deal, so we worked out a return of company stock issued at the inception of the deal,” Steven Swank, Caribbean International Holdings' chairman and CEO, says in a press release.

The company has retired the stock, which reduced its total number of outstanding shares by 17% from 407.49 million shares down to 337.49 million shares.

In addition, the company says it plans to focus entirely on the stem-cell activities of its subsidiary, Regenerative BioScience Inc. and dispose of any unrelated assets. Regenerative BioScience provides adult stem cell treatments for degenerative diseases through a treatment facility in the Dominican Republic.