The supervisory board of restaurant operator Sfinks has decided against a buyout of pizza chain Da Grasso, the company said in a statement. According to Sfinks, the transaction did not guarantee the advantages the company had hoped to gain from the merger.

The companies signed a conditional deal in October last year, while the final agreement was to be signed by July 31, 2010.

Sylwester Cacek, a member of Sfink's supervisory board, said in the statement that the company decided to walk away from the deal since the additional information Da Grasso had provided did not satisfy the company and because the risk was too high that the pizza chain would not generate the hoped-for results.

Da Grasso, on the other hand, says that the sale fell through because Sfinks lowered the proposed price.

“We inform that the purchase of 100 percent of shares in Da Grasso Sp. z o.o. by Sfinks Polska SA did not come to fruition because Sfinks SA lowered the price set in the preliminary agreement,” Da Grasso wrote in a statement, adding that it found the new conditions unsatisfactory.

But Sfinks still wants continue its rapid development strategy that stipulates having 150 restaurants in 2011 and 290 in 2014, from the current 111, under the casual dining Sphinx and WOOK brands and the premium segment brand Chłopskie Jadło.

Da Grasso has 203 pizza restaurants throughout Poland.