Chipotle took on McDonalds as an early investor, used McDonald's investment to quickly expand from 16 to 500 stores. Chipotle had a tremendously successful IPO, which they used to fund further growth. McDonalds, who was always a minority investor, divested themselves from Chiptole earning $1.5 billion on a $450 million investment. It trades on the NYSE as CMG and has a market cap of 88 billion.
Based on how Chipotle has been the last couple years though, I foresee them going down the route of Red Lobster within the next 10 years. That kind of valuation goes against how bad the food has gotten.
