CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) has closed the sale of
its Taco Bueno subsidiary to an affiliate of Jacobson Partners, a private equity buyout firm.

“While we have enjoyed having Taco Bueno as a member of our family of QSR concepts, the sale of the chain allows us to better focus
our management and deploy capital on our two core brands, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s,” said Andrew F. Puzder, CKE’s president and
chief executive officer.

“From a high of almost $300 million early in fiscal 2000, we reduced the outstanding balance on our senior credit facility to $169
million at fiscal year ending 2001, and down to $106 million today, before application of the proceeds of the sale of Taco Bueno. The
sale of Taco Bueno enables us to further reduce our outstanding senior credit facility by approximately $60 million.

“We embarked on a strategy in November 1999 to dispose of assets and close unprofitable stores to generate cash to reduce our
level of indebtedness. That strategy, although it has resulted in substantial losses for financial reporting purposes, is necessary to
position the company for future profitable operations. We expect to record a substantial loss for the first quarter, primarily composed of
non-cash items such as store closure reserves, asset impairment charges and a loss on the sale of Taco Bueno.”

Praetorian Group acted as intermediaries in the transaction, assisting in negotiation, financing and closing.