(Reuters) March 25, 2011 – Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc, a large South American franchisee of U.S. fastfood chain McDonald’s Corp, is planning to raise about $875 million in a stock offering and list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Arcos Dorados said in a filing with U.S. regulators that it is the hamburger chain’s largest franchisee in terms of sales and number of restaurants.

It is planning to sell 62.5 million shares for between $13 and $15 apiece but did not give an expected timing for its initial public offering.

The company, based in Argentina, says it accounted for 5.1 percent of McDonald’s global sales in 2010. It has been a franchisee since 2007.

About 80 percent of the shares in the IPO are being sold by Arcados shareholders DLJ South American Partners LP, DLJSAP Restco Co-Investments LLC, Capital International Private Equity Fund V LP, CGPE V LP and Gavea Investment AD LP.

Arcos Dorados, which means Golden Arches in Spanish, said it agreed with McDonald’s to use the $150 million in net proceeds it expects from the IPO for capital expenditures such as opening and remodeling restaurants.

As of December 31, 2010, it operated 1,755 restaurants in 19 countries, including in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Itau BBA and Citigroup are the lead underwriters of the IPO.

The company had revenues of $3.02 billion in 2010, up 14.1 percent from a year earlier, and net income of $106.3 million, compared to $80.4 million a year before.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York and Suzannah Benjamin in Bangalore, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

To read the company’s press release, click here.