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By Anne Pallivathuckal

BANGALORE, June 16 (Reuters) - Landry's Restaurants (LNY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) agreed to be bought by Chief Executive Tilman Fertitta for about $1.3 billion, including debt, almost six months after he made his initial offer for the restaurant-chain operator, but left the door open for opposing bids from third parties.

Fertitta will pay $21.00 a share in cash, about 25 percent more than the stock's Friday closing price of $16.79. The deal value of $1.3 billion includes about $885.0 million of debt.

Landry's shares, which have lost almost half their value over the past year, surged 20 percent to touch a high of $20.15 Monday.

The deal represents a triumph for Fertitta over skeptics who had doubted his ability to secure funding for the deal as the credit crunch squeezed debt markets.

The 50-year-old Fertitta, whose cousins Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta took Las Vegas casino operator Station Casinos private in a management-led buyout last year, had in January offered to buy Landry's for $23.50 a share.

But in April Fertitta, who has been with the company for more than two decades and owns about 39 percent of Landry's, cut his offer price to $21 a share as credit market conditions worsened, making it far more costly to obtain the debt financing needed for the deal.

But Landry's on Monday said Fertitta, whose offer values the stock at about 16 times forward earnings, has received debt financing commitments from Jefferies Funding LLC, Jefferies & Co Inc, Jefferies Finance LLC and Wells Fargo Foothill LLC to fund the acquisition.