The Restaurant Group is finalising a deal to sell the Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito restaurant chains to the owner of Café Rouge.
TRG, which also owns Wagamama, said late on Saturday that it was in “advanced discussions” with Big Table Group, the company behind Café Rouge, Las Iguanas and Bella Italia, about a “potential divestment of its leisure business”.
The deal would add about 75 sites to Big Table Group’s 160-restaurant portfolio.
TRG’s management will hope to quiet activist investors including Hong Kong-based hedge fund Oasis Management and US-based fund Irenic Capital Management and Coltrane Asset Management.
