Tue 14th Jul 2015 - CBPE Capital confirms sale of Cote CBPE Capital confirms sale of Cote: CBPE Capital, the mid-market private equity firm, has confirmed the sale of its investment in Côte Restaurants to BC Partners. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed but it is thought to have been sold for circa £250m. The sale to BC represents a money multiple of 2.9x CBPE’s original investment in Côte and an IRR of 78%. Côte was founded by a group of experienced restaurateurs, who opened the first restaurant in Wimbledon in 2007. Côte was established on the principle of serving simple, freshly prepared French food at value for money prices, an ethos which remains today. CBPE invested in Côte in September 2013, backing Harald Samuelsson, Alex Scrimgeour and the rest of the management team, to continue to grow the business while maintaining its commitment to offering high quality food at a reasonable price. Under CBPE’s ownership, Côte has opened 23 new restaurants across the UK and the business has created over 1,300 new jobs. CBPE Capital stated: “The consistency of Côte’s performance across its estate is market-leading; there are no loss making sites and Ebitda has grown by over 60% since CBPE invested.” CBPE’s investment was co-led by Ian Moore and Sean Dinnen with support from Tom Biddle and it continues CBPE’s strong track record of investing in the leisure sector. Previous CBPE leisure investments include Park Resorts, one of the UK’s leading caravan park operators and The Original Bowling Company, the UK’s leading tenpin bowling business. Alex Scrimgeour, joint managing director of Côte, said: “We are really proud of what we have achieved at Côte since opening the first restaurant in 2007 and I would like to thank CBPE for their insight and guidance over their investment period. CBPE has been a very supportive investor and shares our commitment to providing a great eating out experience while keeping prices reasonable for our customers, which has been the cornerstone of our success. With CBPE’s support and investment, we have built a fantastic business which is very well placed for future success.” Ian Moore, partner at CBPE, added: “Côte has achieved exceptional growth in the last two years and has been a great investment for CBPE. We had known the Côte team for a number of years before investing in the business and backed Harald, Alex and the rest of the management team because they have an uncompromising dedication to quality and a proven track record of growing successful restaurant businesses. We are delighted with Côte’s performance under our ownership and proud of the business that management has built with CBPE’s support. We wish Côte and the team every success in the future.”