Burger King Holdings Inc., the parent company of the popular Burger King chain of fast food restaurants, successfully finished its initial public offering at the close of Wednesday's stock exchange, raising more funds than any other restaurant in history.

Burger King sold 25 million shares of common stock at $17 each, raising a total of $425 million. The net proceeds, after paying an underwriter's commission and fees, came to $393 million. The stock offering beat the previous restaurant IPO high of $339 million set in July 2004 by Domino's Pizza.

Yesterday's result also makes Burger King the second largest burger chain in terms of market capitalization, behind McDonalds and ahead of Wendy's.

The money raised will be used to pay off previous debt, with $350 million of the proceeds used to pay most of a $367 million dividend paid in February to the company's current owners, Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.

The 25 million shares sold represent 19 percent of the company's overall shares, with the rest belonging to the owners.

Shares rose 40 cents today to $17.40 in early day trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BKC.