J. Alexander’s buying O’Charley’s sister company

The leaders of J. Alexander’s Holdings have struck a deal with their former majority owner to pay $179 million for a 106-unit restaurant chain concentrated in the Northeast.

If approved by J. Alexander’s investors late this year, the stock deal for 99 Restaurants LLC — which also calls for the buyer to take on $20 million debt — will more than double the size of J. Alexander’s, which had 2016 sales of $220 million. Ninety Nine last year rang up revenues of $304 million from its roughly 100 locations in New England and New York. (Ninety Nine’s network produced $30 million of adjusted EBITDA last year compared to $24.3 million at J. Alexander’s.)