Tragus Holdings is set to announce a £138m refinancing which will enable it to fund new openings of its Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia formats.
Some £20m of the cash will go towards new openings. A £27m tranche is being returned to investors while the rest will be used to reduce debt.
The £20m will be enough to open 40 new eateries at the rate of about 12 a year. Tragus has 160 outlets, of which 86 trade as Cafe Rouge and 61 as Bella Pasta.
References: The Times 30/05/06 page 38 (Need to Know), page 41
