After months of dozens of restaurant closings and headlines about “endless shrimp” woes, Red Lobster is poised to soon exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the casual seafood chain’s reorganization plan and sale to a lender group led by asset manager Fortress. Fortress, joined by co-investors TCW Private Credit and Blue Torch, created RL Investor Holdings LLC to acquire Red Lobster through bankruptcy court.

Damola Adamolekun, who stepped down as P.F. Chang’s CEO in 2023, is poised to become CEO of Red Lobster with the judge’s ruling.

The judge’s ruling comes just four months after Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy protection as it pursued a sale, following years of mounting losses and dwindling customers while it struggled to keep up with competitors.

At the time of filing in May, Red Lobster’s leadership shared plans to “simplify the business” through a reduction of locations. The Orlando-based chain shuttered a number of its North American restaurants in recent months — both leading up to and during the bankruptcy process. That includes more than 50 locations whose equipment was put up for auction just days before the Chapter 11 petition, followed by dozens of additional closures throughout the bankruptcy process.

Red Lobster will continue to operate as an independent company, with 544 locations across 44 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces, according to Fortress. That’s down from 578 disclosed as of May’s filing.

Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May after racking up nearly $300 million in outstanding debt and said then it planned to sell “substantially all of its assets.” A week before it closed about 80 locations, including six in Central Florida. Its bankruptcy case was filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando.

Red Lobster has seen multiple ownership changes over the course of its 56-year history. The chain was founded back in 1968 by Bill Darden, who sold Red Lobster to General Mills in 1970. General Mills later went on to form Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and other chains. Darden Restaurants was spun off from General Mills in 1995.

Darden Restaurants later sold Red Lobster to a private equity firm in 2014. Thai Union Group, one of the world’s largest seafood suppliers, first invested in Red Lobster in 2016 and upped its stake in 2020 — but announced its intention to exit its minority investment earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.