New York, Feb 19, 2026, 08:20 EST — Premarket
- MCW dipped 0.7% to $6.93 early, with the stock sitting a hair under the $7 buyout offer in premarket action.
- Leonard Green & Partners is set to acquire the rest of the shares it doesn’t yet hold, with an all-cash offer that puts the company’s value near $3.1 billion.
- Mister Car Wash posted $261.2 million in net revenue for the fourth quarter and scrapped its 2026 guidance, also calling off its earnings call.
Mister Car Wash (MCW) slipped 0.7% before the bell Thursday, hovering at $6.93—just below Leonard Green & Partners’ $7 per share cash bid. Shares last finished at $6.98. (Public)
The bid price draws a clear line for the stock—something it hadn’t had through months of rocky trading—and effectively makes it a deal spread play. Now, what’s left is the wait, and gauging the chances the deal actually closes. Next quarter’s results? They don’t really move the needle anymore.
Fourth-quarter and full-year figures landed as Mister Car Wash unveiled the deal. Net revenues climbed 4% to $261.2 million for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2025. Comparable-store sales ticked up 1.6%, while Unlimited Wash Club membership bumped up 7%, hitting almost 2.3 million. The chain finished 2025 operating 548 locations—16 built from the ground up, plus five acquired just last quarter. It’s not sharing a 2026 outlook and has dropped its earnings call this time. “We delivered a strong finish to 2025,” CEO John Lai said. (SEC)
Leonard Green is pitching $7.00 a share in cash, putting the enterprise value near $3.1 billion. According to the company, that’s a 29% premium over the 90-day VWAP up to Feb. 17—a measure that factors in trading volume. Lai said taking the company private would “help us accelerate our growth by investing more boldly in our stores.” (SEC)
The company has a tight window for talks with any third party that puts forward an acquisition bid, according to a filing—those discussions are permitted under certain terms, but only up until 5 p.m. ET on April 19. If the merger falls through under specified circumstances, a $31.25 million breakup fee kicks in. The merger agreement sets June 18, 2026 as the outside date, though there’s room for that to be pushed back. Debt financing lined up includes a $900 million senior secured, first-lien incremental term loan facility, the filing said. (SEC)
Several firms wasted no time revising their ratings after the offer put a lid on near-term gains. Early Thursday, Guggenheim cut Mister Car Wash to neutral from buy. Wells Fargo moved to equal weight from overweight on Wednesday, according to published reports. (MarketScreener)
The company leans hard on subscriptions: Unlimited Wash Club accounted for 79% of total wash sales in the fourth quarter, according to its numbers. The car-wash business is still fragmented, fueling the ongoing roll-up story. Now, with the take-private, that narrative shifts—execution moves out of public view, and public investors get fewer quarterly clues.
Still, the transaction isn’t finished yet. Regulatory approvals, the financing terms, and any lawsuits tied to the deal could all drag out the timeline. If there’s a real holdup, the spread between the current share price and that $7 offer usually gets bigger.
Investors now turn their attention to the company’s information statement filings related to the going-private process, keeping an eye on possible rival bids ahead of the April 19 deadline. The company’s stated timeline points to a close in “the first half of 2026,” with June 18 marked as the outside date.
